Getting Our House in Order: A Smarter Path to Drug Pricing Reform

The Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing policy proposal remains an administration focus since a May executive order. Most recently, President Trump sent letters to the CEOs of 17 major pharmaceutical companies, outlining the measures they need to take to “deliver relief for American families.”

We wish foreign-reference pricing could deliver the relief they promise.

In fact, the opposite is true.

The MFN policy poses a serious threat to the life-saving access to care that patients receive in the U.S. By tying Medicare or Medicaid drug prices to the lowest rates in other developed nations, MFN risks triggering widespread job losses, stifling economic growth and undermining a sector that contributes significantly to the U.S. economy. It also would jeopardize our global leadership in biomedical research and manufacturing, potentially ceding ground to competitors like China who are already closely nipping at our heels.

In no uncertain terms, the Trump administration has urged industries to invest in U.S. development. The biopharmaceutical sector has answered with tens of billions of dollars in new projects. Between 2019 and 2024, more than 1,000 large-scale construction initiatives across 18 states have injected $86.5 billion into research labs, biomanufacturing plants and other vital life sciences infrastructure, creating union jobs, boosting local economies and reinforcing America’s position as a leader in biomedical innovation.

As a drumbeat of new projects continues across the country, these investments are on track to skyrocket in the years ahead.

We Work For Health shares in the Trump administration’s commitment to protecting U.S. jobs and leadership and applauds these domestic investments. We know that the U.S. leadership in this space is not only critical for patients to have first and best access to new medicines, but also for our global competitiveness, ensuring the U.S. remains the tip of the spear.

MFN-like policies jeopardize treatment access while putting thousands of jobs and billions in investment at risk.

When discussing foreign reference pricing, We Work For Health Executive Director Dan Leonard speaks often to the need of “getting our own house in order first before we look overseas.” Americans pay more for their healthcare — that is indisputable — but there are critical steps to address it that don’t involve problematic reference pricing.

As WWFH Co-Chair Tom Kowalski recently wrote, “By failing to confront pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the MFN model targets the wrong part of the supply chain.”

Patients deserve solutions. They deserve relief.

MFN delivers neither.