Report: AstraZeneca is Next to Reach MFN Deal with White House

White House - Washington D.C. United States of America | Image Credit: © Orhan Çam - stock.adobe.com

AstraZeneca has agreed to offer drugs at a lower, “most-favored-nation” (MFN) price to patients in the United States through the federal government’s not-yet-live TrumpRx.gov platform, a White House official told MSNBC on Friday, Oct. 10, 2025 (1). The MSNBC report said that the White House press office has declined to give an official comment.

The website RollCall.com published US President Donald Trump’s public schedule for Oct. 10, which indicated that the president would be making an announcement in the Oval Office at 5 p.m. ET (2). MSNBC reported that its White House source said AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot would be meeting with Trump on the afternoon of Oct. 10, and be present for the White House announcement (1).

What details have been reported about the AstraZeneca agreement?

AstraZeneca’s reported deal to lower drug prices in the US stands to make prescriptions more affordable for patients with lower incomes, including those on Medicaid, according to the MSNBC report (1). The TrumpRx platform will allow any companies that reach an MFN deal with the White House to sell their drugs directly to consumers at deep discounts, according to another administration official reached by MSNBC, but the website is not expected to be made live until 2026.

Pfizer was the first pharmaceutical company to announce an MFN agreement with the White House, which both sides disclosed on Sept. 30, 2025 (3). That was one day after the end of a 60-day timeframe Trump had put in place for companies to comply with the step-by-step process, provided by his administration, to lower prescription drug prices in the US to the lowest price offered among other developed nations, or the federal government would “deploy every tool in our arsenal to protect American families from continued abusive drug pricing practices” (4).

Aside from AstraZeneca and Pfizer, the other 15 companies to receive letters outlining those plans were AbbVie, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Company, EMD Serono, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Regeneron, and Sanofi (4).

What other commitments does AstraZeneca have in the US?

The reported impending deal with the White House is the second major piece of news involving AstraZeneca in as many days. On Oct. 9, 2025, the company said it would be investing a total of $4.5 billion in a new US manufacturing facility, near Charlottesville, Va., with that monetary amount representing a proposed increase of $500 million that will be dedicated to enhanced manufacturing capability supporting a broader range of medicines, including cancer treatments (5). The investment is just a portion of AstraZeneca’s $50 billion overall commitment to US manufacturing and R&D that was first announced in July 2025, part of an industry-wide re-examining of manufacturing operations due to the changing tariff policies of the Trump administration.

This story will be updated.

References

1. Traylor, J. Trump Strikes Drug-Pricing deal with Pharma Giant AstraZeneca. MSNBC.com, Oct. 10, 2025.
2. Roll Call Factba.se. Donald J. Trump’s Public Schedule. RollCall.com, updated Oct. 10, 2025.
3. Lavery, P. Pfizer Reaches First Agreement with White House on MFN Pricing; Who Will Be Next? PharmTech.com, Sept. 30, 2025.
4. Lavery, P. Trump Sends Letters to 17 Leading Pharma Companies Outlining Most-Favored-Nation Drug Pricing Protocol. PharmTech.com, Aug. 1, 2025.
5. Lavery, P. AstraZeneca’s US Expansion Highlights AI, Automation, and Policy Pressure in Pharma Manufacturing. PharmTech.com, Oct. 10, 2025.