September 26, 2025

Hold on to your wallets, folks! The Trump administration might soon serve up a hot new rule that could force drugmakers to lower U.S. drug prices to match cheaper prices in other wealthy countries. This spicy plan, lurking under the name "global benchmark for efficient drug pricing (GLOBE) model," popped up on a federal website Thursday—then disappeared for a while, before reappearing again. What exactly this rule will do remains a bit of a mystery, and the health department isn’t spilling the beans just yet. But this idea isn’t totally new. President Donald Trump has long argued that America shouldn’t pay more for medicine than its peers. "We subsidize the rest of the world," Trump declared in a recent news conference. "We're not doing that anymore." Back in 2020, his Medicare agency began trying something similar for a small group of drugs, but a legal roadblock and the Biden administration put the brakes on that effort. If this new GLOBE proposal moves ahead, expect pharmaceutical companies to roar in protest. PhRMA, the powerful drug industry group, warned, "Importing foreign price controls would undermine American leadership, hurting patients and workers." They believe the right move is to get other countries to "pay their fair share" instead. Adding to the drama, Trump announced a 100% tariff on some foreign-made brand-name drugs, though many big-selling medicines might dodge that bullet. Earlier, Trump set a September 29 deadline for drugmakers to voluntarily slash prices, threatening that government price controls might kick in if they didn't cooperate. Drug prices in the U.S. are often three times higher than in other rich nations. Europe’s hard bargaining forces companies to cut prices or lose market access. In America, medicines start super pricey and mostly stay that way unless competitors crowd the market. Even some drug companies are playing along, tweaking their UK prices or selling directly to patients to align with Trump’s demands. AstraZeneca’s CEO Pascal Soriot agrees with Trump that research costs "should be shared more fairly across rich countries." But as this battle heats up, the big question is: Will this spicy plan break through legal challenges? Will it tame sky-high drug bills, or just stir more trouble? Stay tuned as the drama unfolds!

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Tags: Trump drug pricing, Pharmaceuticals, Drug price controls, U.s. healthcare, Globe model, Phrma,