TrumpRx.gov, President Donald Trump’s new self-pay prescription drug website, launched Thursday, offering discounted cash prices on 43 brand-name medications.
The administration has promoted the platform as a way to cut costs for patients.
“You’re going to save a fortune,” Trump said at a White House news conference Thursday evening launching the website. “And this is also so good for overall health care.”
Experts, however, say the biggest savings are likely to be limited to people who are uninsured or pay entirely out of pocket.
The cost of health care, including prescription drugs, is the top economic concern for most U.S adults, according to a recent poll by KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group, with more than 4 in 10 voters saying it will have a “major impact” on their decisions to vote in the midterm elections.
At least 16 drugmakers have negotiated agreements with the White House to participate on the platform. The discount prices are part of Trump’s broader effort to implement a “most favored nation” pricing model for prescription drugs, meaning the U.S. pays no more than the lowest prices charged in other wealthy countries.
As of Thursday, the site included discounts on drugs negotiated with five pharmaceutical companies: AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, EMD Serano, Novo Nordisk and Pfizer. Lilly’s and Novo Nordisk’s popular weight loss drugs Zepbound and Wegovy are among those discounted on the site.
TrumpRx doesn’t sell the drugs directly. Instead, it offers coupons that people can take to the pharmacy where they fill their prescriptions. Some drugs, including several that are used for in vitro fertilization, are available only at specialty pharmacies, the site notes. Other drugs, including AstraZeneca’s diabetes drug Xigduo XR, don’t have coupons. Instead, TrumpRx directs people to the drugmakers’ own direct-to-consumer websites.
“Many more drugs are coming soon,” the website says.
Some of the discounts the administration announced are steep. The migraine drug Zavzpret, for example, will cost $549 through TrumpRx, down from $1,189.
The deals have drawn widespread attention — and questions — because much remains unclear, including how long discounts will last and what the final agreements with drugmakers look like.
The Trump administration has said it negotiated price cuts in exchange for tariff relief. Last month, the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Trump administration for failing to provide documents related to the deals.
TrumpRx offers discounts only on brand-name drugs, which are generally far pricier than generic versions and far less commonly prescribed — 9 in 10 prescriptions in the U.S. are for generic drugs, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The discounts are also available only for people who aren’t using insurance. About 84% of the U.S. population has prescription drug coverage, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
“There’s no clear advantage for most people to use TrumpRx to purchase their medications,” said Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the program on Medicare policy at KFF.
That’s because, for most people — especially most with health insurance — “it would be hard for direct-to-consumer prices to beat the cost-sharing amounts that they’ll pay using their insurance if they have coverage for drugs that are being sold through TrumpRx or other direct-to-consumer platforms,” Cubanski said.
Even the website notes that. “If you have insurance, check your co-pay first—it may be even lower,” the site says.
What’s more, what people with insurance spend through TrumpRx may not count toward their insurance benefits, which means it doesn’t help them meet their deductibles or out-of-pocket maximums.
Direct to consumer prescription drug platforms have become popular in recent years. In 2022, billionaire investor Mark Cuban launched Cost Plus Drugs, an online pharmacy focused on offering lower-cost generic drugs. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly — the makers of Wegovy and Zepbound, respectively — have also rolled out their own cash-pay websites that offer discounts on the drugs’ list prices.