President Trump said Monday that his online pharmacy, TrumpRx, was adding more than 600 generic medications to its direct-to-consumer offerings.
At an event at the White House to announce the expansion, Trump was joined by representatives of several companies that will work with the administration on the initiative. Among them was Mark Cuban, the billionaire businessman who has been one of the president’s staunchest political critics. Mr. Cuban runs an online pharmacy that specializes in offering low prices for generic medications.
“We have the same thing, one thing, in common: We want to make people better and keep them rich,” Trump told Cuban.
Cuban, who opposed the president’s 2024 re-election campaign, on Monday praised what he called a “special partnership,” noting that Americans across the political spectrum want lower drug prices.
TrumpRx, a government website introduced in February, does not sell medications directly. Its goal is to help Americans find the lowest prices for their medications, although experts warned that in many cases patients could pay less by purchasing insurance.
The other partners announced Monday are Amazon’s pharmaceutical business and GoodRx, a site that allows consumers to compare prices for their medications.
With prices rising due to the war in Iran, Trump has been counting on his drug pricing policies to appeal to Americans concerned about affordability.
Until now, TrumpRx had primarily featured brand-name products, including wildly popular obesity medications and infertility treatments. Before Monday’s announcement, the site listed 74 medications; All are sold by major brand-name drugmakers, although some have lost patent protection and face generic competition.
About 90 percent of Americans’ prescriptions are generic medications. The 602 added to the site on Monday include widely used prescriptions such as blood pressure medications, antibiotics and statins. Many are priced under $5. The site advises patients to check if they can pay less with insurance.
Pharmaceutical company Mark Cuban Cost Plus has become popular by finding a niche with certain generic drugs that, due to behind-the-scenes pricing games, carry high out-of-pocket costs if people use their insurance.
It began operating in 2022 and now offers more than 2,300 medications. The company increases drug prices by 15 percent and mails prescriptions to patients. Before Monday’s announcement, Cuban had repeatedly praised TrumpRx, saying he was open to any good idea that would save Americans money on their prescriptions.
In recent months, Trump has reached a series of deals with manufacturers, exempting them from threatened tariffs in exchange for them lowering some of their prices and offering certain drugs directly to consumers through TrumpRx.
A relatively small proportion of Americans will benefit directly from these measures, such as certain seniors on Medicare who will soon qualify to pay $50 a month for obesity medications. But for many Americans struggling with a host of rising costs, the president’s moves to fix drug prices have not translated into direct savings.
