![\"Pascal](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25283792624588-1760134740.jpg\")
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot looks to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office [Alex Brandon\/AP Photo]<\/p>\nUnited States President Donald Trump has unveiled a second deal with a major pharmaceutical company to offer lower-cost prescription drugs direct to American consumers.<\/p>\n
This time, the agreement concerned AstraZeneca, a multinational based in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
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Trump hosted the company\u2019s chief executive, Pascal Soriot, in the Oval Office on Friday to publicly cement the deal, which he described as \u201canother historic achievement in our quest to lower drug prices for all Americans\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmericans can expect discounts, and as I said, it could be, in many cases, way over a hundred percent,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n
As in previous press appearances, he pledged US consumers would see impossible discounts on popular medications.<\/p>\n
Inhalers to treat asthma, for example, would be discounted by 654 percent, Trump said, calling the device a \u201cdrug that\u2019s hot, very hot\u201d. He also reiterated past claims that some medications could see \u201ca thousand percent reduction\u201d.<\/p>\n
Trump has long pushed to reduce prescription drug costs to what he has billed as \u201cmost-favoured nations prices\u201d.<\/p>\n
That would bring prices down to the same level as in other developed countries, though Trump, with typical hyperbole, has said the policy would equate to \u201cthe \u200alowest price anywhere in the world\u201d.<\/p>\n
AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot looks to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office [Alex Brandon\/AP Photo]<\/p>\n
AstraZeneca is the second major pharmaceutical company after Pfizer<\/a> to strike such a bargain. Last month, Pfizer announced a \u201cvoluntary agreement\u201d to price its products \u201cat parity with other key developed markets\u201d.<\/p>\n Like AstraZeneca, it also agreed to participate in an online, direct-to-consumer marketplace the Trump administration plans to launch, called TrumpRx.<\/p>\n But in a news release<\/a> on its website, Pfizer made clear that the agreement would help it dodge the high tariffs that Trump threatened against overseas pharmaceutical manufacturers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe now have the certainty and stability we need on two critical fronts, tariffs and pricing, that have suppressed the industry\u2019s valuations to historic lows,\u201d Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said.<\/p>\n At Friday\u2019s Oval Office ceremony, officials like Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr openly celebrated the power Trump had wielded through his tariff threats.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aThe president saw something that we didn\u2019t see, which is we had leverage, and that came through Howard [Lutnick] and the tariffs,\u201d Kennedy said, giving a nod to Trump\u2019s commerce secretary. \u201cWe had extraordinary leverage to craft these deals.\u201d<\/p>\n The deals with both AstraZeneca and Pfizer came after Trump threatened in September to impose a 100-percent tariff<\/a> on pharmaceutical companies unless they started to build manufacturing plants in the US.<\/p>\n \u201cThere will, therefore, be no Tariff on these Pharmaceutical Products if construction has started,\u201d Trump wrote<\/a> on his platform, Truth Social.<\/p>\n Those tariffs were slated to come into effect on October 1. But Pfizer unveiled its deal with the Trump administration on September 30, and the tariffs were subsequently postponed.<\/p>\n In Friday\u2019s Oval Office appearance, Soriot acknowledged that, like Pfizer, he had negotiated a delay for any tariffs against AstraZeneca. In exchange, he pledged to increase US investments to $50bn by 2030.<\/p>\n \u201cI appreciate very much Secretary Lutnick granting us a three-year tariff exemption to localise the remainder of our products,\u201d Soriot said. \u201cMost of our products are locally manufactured, but we need to transfer the remaining part to this country.\u201d<\/p>\n Just one day earlier, AstraZeneca had revealed it would construct<\/a> a \u201cmulti-billion-dollar drug substance manufacturing centre\u201d in Virginia, with a focus on chronic diseases, a top priority for the Trump administration.<\/p>\n Trump himself touted his tariff threat as the impetus for the recent string of drug deals. When asked by a reporter if he could have brought the pharmaceutical companies to the negotiating table any other way, Trump was blunt.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aI would never have been able to bring him,\u201d he replied, with a gesture to Soriot. \u201c\u200aNow, I\u2019m not sure that Pascal would like to say, but behind the scenes, he did say tariffs were a big reason he came here.\u201d<\/p>\n Since returning for a second term as president, the Republican leader has relied heavily on tariffs \u2013 and the threats of tariffs \u2013 as a cudgel to bring foreign governments and businesses in line with his administration\u2019s priorities.<\/p>\n He has called the term \u201ctariff\u201d the \u201cmost beautiful word\u201d in the dictionary and repeatedly labelled the dates he unveiled such import taxes as \u201cLiberation Day\u201d.<\/p>\n But earlier this year, it was unclear if his sabre-rattling would pay dividends. In May, for instance, Trump issued an executive action calling on his government to take \u201call necessary and appropriate action\u201d to penalise countries whose policies he understood as driving up US drug costs.<\/p>\n He also called on Secretary Kennedy to lay the groundwork for \u201cdirect-to-consumer\u201d purchasing programmes where pharmaceutical companies could sell their products at a discount.<\/p>\n Trump, however, lacked a legal mechanism to force participation in such a programme.<\/p>\n In July, he upped the pressure, sending letters<\/a> to major pharmaceutical manufacturers. The letters warned the drug-makers to bring down prices, or else the government would \u201cdeploy every tool in our arsenal\u201d to end the \u201cabusive drug pricing practices\u201d.<\/p>\n![\"Glenn](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/AP25283797921602-1760139579.jpg\")
Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin praised the construction of an AstraZeneca facility in his state [Alex Brandon\/AP Photo]<\/p>\n