Drug Prices Rise on 350 US Medicines Despite Trump Pricing Deals

The January ritual, now on a bigger list

At the start of 2026, drugmakers went ahead with their usual New Year price increases, and the list was longer than the year before. Data that healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors gave exclusively to Reuters showed plans to raise US list prices on at least 350 branded medicines. The list included vaccines for COVID, RSV and shingles, as well as Pfizer's best-selling breast cancer drug Ibrance.13 At the same point a year earlier, companies had announced increases on a little over 250 drugs. The median increase stayed at about 4%, roughly where it was in 2025.4 BioSpace described the jump as about 40% more drugs getting price increases than in the previous cycle.3

The timing matters because of the politics. The White House had spent much of 2025 pushing companies toward "most favored nation" pricing, which would tie US prices to the lowest prices paid in other wealthy countries. Fourteen drugmakers had signed voluntary deals covering some of their products.1 Five of those companies, Pfizer, Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis and GSK, were also on the list of firms raising prices on January 1.112

One caveat runs through all the reporting: these are list prices. They do not account for rebates paid to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs, the middlemen that manage drug benefits for insurers) or other confidential discounts.4 What patients and health plans actually pay can be quite different. Still, list prices affect uninsured people and many deductible-based plans directly, and they show which way companies want prices to go.

Pfizer at the top, and a cancer drug in focus

Pfizer was the first company to sign a pricing deal with the White House, and it also had the most increases, about 80 products.3 Its list included Ibrance, the migraine drug Nurtec and the COVID antiviral Paxlovid. It also included hospital drugs such as morphine and hydromorphone.6 Most of Pfizer's increases were under 10%. The exceptions were a 15% rise for its COVID vaccine Comirnaty and more than fourfold increases on some cheap hospital products.7

Ibrance stands out in the coverage. It is one of the best-known cancer treatments in the US, and patients often take it for long periods. A small percentage increase on a drug like that adds up to a lot of money over a course of treatment. Zachary Schulz, a public health historian at Auburn University, told Healthline that the type of drugs mattered more to him than the count. He said vaccines and specialty cancer therapies sit where individual health and population health meet.2 Cancer patients often depend on one specific therapy with no close substitute, which leaves them with little ability to push back on price.

Pfizer defended the increases. It said the average list price of its innovative medicines and vaccines for 2026 had been set below the overall inflation rate. It called the increase modest and said it was needed to fund research and cover rising costs across its business.711 GSK said it would raise prices on about 20 drugs and vaccines by between 2% and 8.9%. It said it was committed to reasonable pricing and that the increases supported scientific innovation.11 Sanofi and Novartis did not respond to requests for comment.11

Where the accounts diverge

The main facts are consistent across outlets: at least 350 drugs, a median of about 4%, Pfizer leading with roughly 80 products. The framing differs in a few telling ways.

The first is how the increases compare with inflation. Pfizer says its average increase was below inflation.11 The industry-critical Campaign for Sustainable Rx Pricing (CSRxP) and the explainer site GovFacts both said the 4% median was higher than the 2.7% inflation rate reported for December 2025.185 Both claims can be true. Pfizer is describing its own portfolio-wide average for one group of products, while the critics are describing the median across the whole industry. Each side picked the measure that suits it. For patients on a particular drug, the more useful question is what happened to that drug's price.

The second is the comparison with the year before. Most outlets said the 2026 median matched 2025. Yahoo Finance said the previous year's figure was a 4.5% average.16 That is a different statistic, so the two shouldn't be compared directly. What every outlet agrees on is that the number of drugs rose much more than the size of each increase.

The third is the count. CSRxP said there were "more than 300" increases at the start of 2026, while the Reuters-based reports used "at least 350."1813 The gap is small, and Reuters said more increases and cuts would probably follow in early January, which is traditionally the busiest month for price changes.1

The fourth is the explanation. Healthline's experts pointed to tariffs, higher labor and materials costs, and pressure from shareholders. David Williams of Health Business Group put it bluntly: shareholders matter more than the President.2 Other accounts focused on the structure of the market instead. GovFacts argued that PBM rebate arrangements reward higher list prices.5 The Hill cited the Centre for Economic Policy Research's view that patent monopolies are the real driver, and that neither most-favored-nation pricing nor Medicare negotiation addresses them.14 These explanations don't contradict each other, but they lead to different policy fixes.

Why the Trump deals didn't stop the increases

The stronger reading is that the deals and the increases fit together rather than conflict. The agreements apply to specific products in Medicaid and to cash purchases through a government-backed direct-to-patient website.17 Most Americans have commercial insurance, which the deals don't cover. The Hill also noted that most-favored-nation pricing may mean little for Medicaid, because the program is already guaranteed the lowest price offered to any commercial payer.14 It reported that companies signed partly under the threat of tariffs, which suggests they were negotiating to limit damage rather than agreeing to broad price cuts.14

Benjamin Rome, a health policy researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital, described the deals as "nibbling around the margins" of what drives US drug prices.1 He said companies seem to be keeping list prices as high as possible while negotiating private discounts with insurers, then setting yet another price for direct-to-consumer cash sales.6 A legal analysis on Lexology reached a similar conclusion: insurers pay one price, and consumers pay a completely different one.10

GovFacts gave the clearest example. Some of the same companies that cut prices sharply on headline drugs, such as Ozempic and Repatha, raised prices on many other products that weren't part of the administration's announcements.5 A company can make a high-profile concession on one drug and quietly raise prices on dozens of others. Williams told Healthline that companies assume they can keep raising prices as long as they make concessions on individual, high-profile products.2

The cuts point to a different lever

Only about nine drugs got list price cuts, according to the reporting. The biggest was a cut of more than 40% to Jardiance, the diabetes drug sold by Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly, along with three related products.1 Jardiance is one of the 10 drugs whose Medicare prices were negotiated for 2026 under the Inflation Reduction Act, and that process cut its price by two-thirds.8 Neither company explained the list price cut.1 The overlap is hard to ignore, though: the most significant cut on the list came from the statutory Medicare negotiation program, not from the voluntary White House deals.

Past policy points the same way. Reuters noted that large US price increases used to be much more common. Companies scaled them back after criticism from lawmakers and after rules took effect penalizing drugmakers whose Medicare prices rise faster than inflation.6 Binding rules have measurably reduced the size of increases, while announced deals haven't stopped them from spreading.

That program is still small. Ten drugs were covered in 2026, and GovFacts reported that 15 more, including Ozempic and Wegovy, are being negotiated for 2027.5 That's 25 drugs, compared with the hundreds that get list price increases each January.

What it means for patients

Who feels the increases depends on coverage. GovFacts said Medicare beneficiaries who reach the $2,100 annual out-of-pocket cap are shielded and the cost shifts to the program. Uninsured patients paying cash absorb list price increases in full.5 People with commercial insurance tend to see the costs indirectly, through higher premiums and copays at renewal.5

Schulz described the disconnect as patients hearing that prices are "coming down" while their pharmacy bills go up. He called it a structural reality of how US drug pricing works, not a contradiction.2 US patients already pay close to three times what patients in other developed countries pay.1 Without broader authority to limit prices, a 4% increase every January widens that gap.

The January 2026 increases weren't defiance of the White House so much as normal business that the deals were never designed to stop. The administration won visible discounts on a short list of drugs, and the industry raised prices on a longer one. Unless policy reaches commercial insurance, patent protection or the rebate system, the 2027 list is likely to look similar, and drugs like Ibrance will probably keep getting the familiar mid-single-digit increase.