Input Stories

Last week, President Trump announced the launch of TrumpRx, intended to give Americans the ability to buy brand-name medications at lower costs (The Wall Street Journal, subscription).

• TrumpRx offered about 40 drugs when launched, including medicines made by Pfizer, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, EMD Serono and Novo Nordisk.

How it works: The site “allows customers to search for specific medicines and purchase them through a manufacturer’s direct-to-consumer site, or in some cases gives users coupons that they can present at certain pharmacies.”

• Pfizer noted that savings may be considerable with discounts on its drugs as high as 85% and averaging 50%, “for the large majority of Pfizer’s primary care treatments and select specialty brands” (Pfizer).

Additional reforms to lower costs: Direct-to-patient platforms are only one part of manufacturers’ comprehensive efforts to lower costs for Americans. Recently passed reforms that rein in pharmacy benefit managers—underregulated middlemen that drive up the costs of prescription drugs for employer-sponsored health plans and patients—will help provide more Americans with considerable savings.

• The NAM has also advocated for increased eligibility and limits for Health Savings Accounts, increased access to telehealth, expanded tax-free health coverage options and reforms to the 340B program, among others, to further lower health care costs.

By the numbers: According to our recent  Manufacturers’ Outlook Survey, 70% of manufacturers cited health care and insurance costs as their primary business concern.

• Increased costs are impacting small and medium-sized manufacturers disproportionately, with 77.3% of small (fewer than 50 employees) and 76.6% of medium-sized (50 to 499 employees) companies citing health care costs as their top concern.
• The survey also provided insight into one component of rising health care costs—94% of manufacturers responded that they expected, or had already seen, an increase in health insurance premiums for 2026. Of those, 11% see premiums rising by more than 20%, an unsustainable increase that neither manufacturers nor manufacturing workers and their families can afford.

The last word: “Despite the challenge [of rising health care costs], 95% of manufacturing employees are eligible for health insurance benefits, 80% of whom participate in a workplace plan, which underscores the urgent need for action to reduce health care costs for manufacturers and manufacturing workers alike,” the NAM said in a letter to House and Senate leadership supporting the PBM reforms included in the recently enacted Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2026.