TrumpRx, Donald Trump’s February push to lower drug costs, is covering far less than the president suggested. A new analysis published Thursday found the discount site includes fewer than 12% of the more than 800 brand-name drugs made by the participating pharmaceutical companies.
That gap matters because Trump has cast TrumpRx as a sweeping answer for cash-paying patients looking for steep discounts on brand-name medicines. The site’s sales pitch points to more than $400 million in savings, but the scope of what it actually lists is narrow enough to leave out many of the medicines people are most likely to search for.
The missing drugs are the point. Pfizer’s Eliquis, Ibrance and Paxlovid are not on the site, and Merck’s Keytruda is missing too. Even where TrumpRx does list a medicine, the price can still undercut the claim that it is always the cheaper route. Pfizer’s Pristiq is listed at about $200, while a generic version runs $20 to $30 with a GoodRx coupon.
Rena Conti, a health economist at Temple University, said the deals are limited by design. Companies are offering discounts on the products they choose, not on everything they sell. That is a far more selective model than the broad promise attached to the site when it was launched in February as the centerpiece of Trump’s effort to bring down drug costs.
That narrow reach also leaves unanswered the most basic question about TrumpRx’s real-world use: how many patients have actually used it. The White House did not tell NPR, and Pfizer said it offers savings of up to 85% on more than 30 medicines while adding that it will keep adjusting the program as it evolves. For now, the public pitch is still bigger than the program itself.
The rollout drew skepticism from the start because the math behind the savings claims was hard to square with a site built around a limited list of medicines. The broader healthcare agenda is also facing legal challenges over Medicaid work requirements, which makes the gap between the promise and the product harder to ignore. What TrumpRx can still prove is whether it becomes a useful discount tool for a slice of patients, or stays a narrow showcase for a much larger claim.
