Otherwise there is a threat of retaliation Trump gives Swiss pharmaceutical giants an ultimatum
US President Donald Trump is increasing the pressure on the pharmaceutical industry during the election campaign. 17 companies, including Novartis, are to present concrete plans for price cuts within 60 days - or face retaliatory measures.
01.08.2025, 08:15
01.08.2025, 08:29
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- Donald Trump is demanding significantly lower drug prices in the USA from 17 pharmaceutical companies.
- The Swiss company Novartis was also given an ultimatum until the end of September.
- The stock market reacted promptly - pharmaceutical stocks such as Merck and Novo Nordisk slipped.
According to US President Donald Trump , he has sent letters to 17 major pharmaceutical companies - including Swiss giant Novartis - calling on them to take immediate action to lower drug prices in the United States. Otherwise they would be threatened with retaliatory measures.
Trump gave the companies a deadline of 60 days in the letters addressed personally to the company bosses. "He has signed 17 letters to the pharmaceutical companies," Trump's spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told the press in Washington on Thursday, reading out the letter to Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks as an example.
Trump then published all the letters on his Truth Social platform. In addition to Novartis, these were also sent to Merck, Pfizer, Astrazeneca, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi, among others.
"All means at our disposal"
"If you refuse to act, we will use every means at our disposal to protect American families from excessive drug prices," the largely identical letters stated. The companies have until September 29 to submit "concrete commitments".
On May 12, Trump had already announced a plan to significantly reduce US drug prices - to the level of other major economies. He failed to fulfill this campaign promise in his first term.
"The prices of certain prescription drugs and pharmaceutical products will drop by 50 to 80 or 90 percent for Americans almost immediately," Trump promised at the time. The main instrument for this would be negotiations with the pharmaceutical companies, which had resisted price reductions in the past.
Pharmaceutical stocks come under pressure
Drug prices in the USA are among the highest in the world - and are significantly higher than prices in neighboring countries and Europe. According to a study by the Rand Corporation, Americans pay on average 2.5 times more for prescription drugs than Europeans, for example. Trump had announced his intention to reduce this gap.
The announcement weighed on the pharmaceutical sector on Wall Street: Eli Lilly lost 1.3 percent, Merck fell 3.6 percent and Novo Nordisk slipped 4.7 percent. Astrazeneca (-3.3 percent) and Pfizer (-1.4 percent) also came under pressure.
