For over 30 years, I stood behind a pharmacy counter and watched hardworking neighbors open their mouths in disbelief when I told them what their prescriptions would cost. I watched them ask if there was a less expensive generic, or if they could stretch a 30-day supply into 45 days, or simply walk out without the medication their doctor prescribed.
For decades, Washington talked about lowering drug prices, but nothing changed. President Donald Trump has finally changed course.
He walked into a fight that previous administrations had avoided for a generation, and instead of another round of congressional hearings and strongly worded letters, he used the leverage of the presidency to force an industry that had never once lowered its prices voluntarily to do exactly that.
New government data show that Trump has delivered the largest drop in prescription drug prices in over 60 years. Prices have fallen every single month this year. No previous administration, Republican or Democrat, has managed to bend the cost curve downward on prescription drugs as this president has.
Trump made this happen by doing what no one else in Washington was willing to do: stand up to an industry that has spent decades charging Americans far more than it charges patients anywhere else in the world. His administration struck landmark agreements with major drug manufacturers requiring them to bring fairer, more competitive prices to American patients, and he backed that demand with the leverage to make it stick. Just this week, that momentum grew even further: Trump announced nine more drugmakers, including Teva, Sun Pharma, and CSL, have agreed to cut prices for patients, bringing the total to 26 companies representing 89% of the branded American pharmaceutical market.
The clearest proof of his success is TrumpRx, the new platform the administration built so Americans can shop for their medications directly and see real prices before purchasing. What began earlier this year with a handful of manufacturers has already grown to more than 800 medications. GLP-1 drugs that previously cost over $1,000 a month are now available for as little as $149. The Department of Veterans Affairs alone has locked in a record $10 billion in pharmaceutical savings this fiscal year, savings that go straight back to caring for the veterans who earned them.
Trump has built the momentum. His administration has proven that meaningful drug price relief is not just possible, it is already happening. Congress now has a real opportunity to build on that progress and make these gains last, starting with reining in pharmacy benefit managers, the shadowy middlemen who profit from confusion in our system by placing their own bottom line ahead of the patient’s health.
As vice chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Health Subcommittee, I have spent much of my time in Congress fighting that battle. That’s why I introduced my bipartisan Patients Before Monopolies Act to ban the kind of joint ownership between PBMs and pharmacies that lets a single company set the price, fill the prescription, and pocket the markup, the exact self-dealing arrangement that has driven independent pharmacies out of business and driven costs up for the patients they claim to serve.
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Trump’s work to force fairer prices from drug manufacturers and my work to rein in the middlemen who mark them up are aimed at the same target: a system where the shelf price reflects the value of the medication, not who has the most leverage in the supply chain.
I know what it looks like when a patient cannot afford to fill a prescription. I also know what it looks like when they finally can. The president has proven that real relief is possible, and that progress deserves to outlast any single administration. It is time for Congress to build on what Trump started and make sure that promise continues to be kept.
Rep. Diana Harshbarger is a Republican representing Tennessee’s First Congressional District and serves as vice chairwoman of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. She spent 30 years as a licensed community pharmacist in East Tennessee before her election to Congress and is still a licensed pharmacist.