The Trump administration is joining forces with Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs, Amazon Pharmacy, and GoodRx to add generic medications to the direct-to-consumer drug sales website, TrumpRx, in an attempt to lower healthcare costs ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
At the White House on Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump announced a merger of the TrumpRx platform with several discount pharmacies to expand access to lower-priced generic medications.
“By incorporating this massive catalog of low-cost generics at Trumprx.gov, consumers will now have one source to ensure that they’re getting the lowest possible costs on their prescriptions,” Trump said.
The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services launched the TrumpRx platform earlier this year as a direct-to-consumer website to access Most Favored Nation drug prices negotiated between the federal government and pharmaceutical companies for name-brand drugs.
Most Favored Nation drug prices, also known as MFN, have been at the center of the Trump administration’s healthcare affordability efforts. Under the threat of tariffs, the administration has secured deals from more than a dozen companies to sell their products in the United States at the lowest rate they are sold at in other countries.
But critics of TrumpRx have bemoaned that the platform is only good for name-brand medications not covered by insurance, such as GLP-1 weight loss medications like Wegovy or fertility drugs like Gonal-f.
The administration’s partnership with private industry actors will allow consumers to obtain generic medication through other online discount pharmacies.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said during the event that more than 600 generic drugs have now been added to the TrumpRx portfolio.
“TrumpRx is bringing the modern face to healthcare and really helping us to save lots of money and lots of lives,” Trump said.
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In addition to the added drugs, the TrumpRx website was also updated to allow users to search on a map for the lowest price prescription drugs at different pharmacies in their area.
Joe Gebbia, U.S. chief design officer whose team built out the website, shared during the event the website’s new functions, which are similar to other comparison shopping tools such as for hotels and airlines.
“From search to savings to satisfaction, this is healthcare built for modern life. You can compare prices on flights, why not medicine?” said Gebbia.
Making healthcare more affordable has been an essential message for both the GOP and Democrats heading into the midterm election season.
Nearly 2 in 3 voters are concerned about not being able to afford rising healthcare costs, according to an April poll from the health think tank KFF. That’s on par with the share who worry about gas and transportation costs and other economic concerns.
More than half say healthcare costs will determine whether and for whom they will vote in November.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers estimates TrumpRx will save the public $529 billion in prescription costs over its first decade
HHS adviser Chris Klomp, one of the main architects of the TrumpRx program, said creating the public-private partnerships to decrease prices will have long-term and stabilizing market effects.
“This president has set us on a course to permanently benefit from lower drug prices as a country,” Klomp said. “The foundation is built, the market is engaged, the future is affordable.”
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Cuban and Trump have had a complex relationship for the past decade, but the duo appears to have put their history aside to advance the goal of lowering drug prices.
Cuban created the online discount pharmacy platform Cost Plus Drugs in January 2022 with the intention of bypassing traditional industry middlemen.
Cost Plus Drugs is known for offering complete price transparency for its generic drug offerings. The cost of drugs on the website includes the manufacturer’s drug cost, a flat 15% markup, a $5 pharmacy labor fee, and $5.25 for shipping.
Like TrumpRx, Cost Plus Drugs is a cash-pay pharmacy, meaning it does not process insurance claims and drug costs from the site do not go toward a patient’s deductible.
Cuban has previously praised TrumpRx, but he has not always supported the president politically.
In 2015, Cuban said Trump was the “best thing to happen to politics in a long time,” but during the 2024 election cycle, the billionaire campaigned for former Vice President Kamala Harris as part of the group “Business Leaders for Harris.”
During the question-and-answer session at the event, Trump joked it was a “big mistake” for Cuban to endorse Harris, adding that he has “always respected” him.
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The president also said he and Cuban “have the same thing, one thing in common: We want to make people better and keep them wealthy.”
“Republicans want cheaper drugs, independents want cheaper drugs, Democrats want cheaper drugs, and together I think we’re going to do something special,” Cuban said.
