The White House announced on Thursday that a proposed drug pricing rule drafted by the Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is currently pending its review.
An economically significant proposed rule titled “Global Benchmark for Efficient Drug Pricing (GLOBE) Model” has been received by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, according to a notice on the agency’s website.
The development marks the U.S. government’s latest effort to lower U.S. drug prices to the level of other developed nations in accordance with President Donald Trump’s most-favored-nation (MFN) pricing policy.
In May, Trump signed an executive order reviving the rule, which he initially introduced in 2020 but was later blocked by federal courts and rescinded by the then-Biden administration.
The proposed rule comes days ahead of a Sept. 29 deadline set by Trump for major pharmaceutical companies to lower U.S. drug prices in line with the MFN policy. He sends letters to the CEOs of 17 leading drugmakers, including Eli Lilly (LLY), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), and Merck (NYSE:MRK), issuing a 60-day ultimatum to comply with the rule.
Other U.S. pharma majors to receive the letters included Gilead (GILD), Bristol Myers (BMY), J&J (NYSE:JNJ), Regeneron (REGN), Amgen (AMGN), and AbbVie (ABBV). European drugmakers Merck KGaA (OTCPK:MKGAF), Sanofi (SNY), GSK (NYSE:GSK), AstraZeneca (AZN), Novo Nordisk (NVO), Roche (OTCQX:RHHBY), and Novartis (NVS) were also part of the group.