The White House on Monday announced that consumer prescription drug prices fell over the past 12 months — a rare occurrence that hasn’t happened in more than 60 years, according to federal data.
Officials touted the decline as a direct result of President Donald Trump’s “bold action” on drug pricing, pointing to Bureau of Labor Statistics data released last week showing prescription drug prices are down 3.9% since Trump took office and have fallen every month of 2026. Nonprescription drugs are down 2.4% over the same period, the White House said.
The Daily Record reported Friday that “prescription drug prices recorded the biggest year-over-year drop in more than 60 years in July,” with experts attributing the surprise decline to a combination of factors. One PJ Media columnist noted the drop is especially notable because drug prices have not fallen that fast in six decades — a shift the author said he had never witnessed in his 57 years.
TrumpRx Platform Delivers Big Savings
At the center of the announcement is the Trump administration’s TrumpRx platform, which officials said has already generated $700 million in savings for patients. The White House highlighted dramatic reductions in high-cost medications, particularly GLP-1 drugs used for weight loss and diabetes.
“GLP-1 medications that once cost over $1,000 a month are now available starting as low as $149,” the administration said. Fertility drugs, inhalers, insulin, cholesterol treatments, and dozens of other high-cost drugs have seen price cuts of 50–90% or more, according to the White House.
The price cuts came after Trump leveraged the federal government’s massive purchasing power and a credible threat to impose “most-favored-nation” pricing on GLP-1 manufacturers like Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, according to the PJ Media report.
Expanded Medicare Access for GLP-1 Drugs
In exchange for lower prices, drugmakers gained access to a much larger market. The administration changed Medicare and Medicaid coverage rules to include GLP-1 drugs, which previously weren’t covered, because the medications appear to benefit patients beyond weight loss.
Medicare and Medicaid recipients now have access to drugs showing promise against diabetes, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, heart failure, and sleep apnea — in addition to general health improvements from shedding excess weight.
The broader policy shift could have major implications for public healthcare spending, which has long outpaced inflation. Data from the decade between 2015 and 2025 show prescription and nonprescription drug prices rose about 18–19% overall — actually lagging behind the general inflation rate. But overall healthcare spending surged 66% over that same period, nearly double the inflation rate, driven largely by Medicare and Medicaid costs.
If drug price declines can help put healthcare spending increases in line with inflation, the PJ Media columnist argued, it could help address Washington’s persistent budget crisis.
The columnist added a comedic note that the administration has done nothing to reduce consumer prices for coffee or distilled spirits — two products he says he drinks “medicinally.”
Source: pjmedia.com — https://pjmedia.com/vodkapundit/2026/08/17/trump-reveals-yuge-win-on-drug-prices-n4956230
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