Major drugmakers are set to raise the price of hundreds of drugs in the U.S., despite pressure from the Trump administration to cut prices.
Costs of at least 350 branded medications, including vaccines against Covid-19, shingles and cancer treatment Ibrance, will be hiked – some beginning from January 1, according to data provided to Reuters by healthcare research firm 3 Axis Advisors.
The data shows the number of price increases for 2026 is up from the same point last year, when manufacturers revealed plans for raises on more than 250 drugs. The median of this year’s price hikes is around 4 percent, similar to that of 2025.
Patients in the U.S. currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, according to Reuters, something that Donald Trump has vowed he will change.
Earlier this month, the White House announced it had reached new agreements with nine major pharmaceutical companies to lower prescription drug prices for Americans: Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, and Sanofi.
The deals were intended to support the government’s Medicaid program for low-income Americans and for cash payers, according to the administration.
However, according to the data from 3 Axis Advisors, Pfizer, Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis and GSK are among those companies and also plan to raise prices on some drugs on January 1.
“These deals are being announced as transformative when, in fact, they really just nibble around the margins in terms of what is really driving high prices for prescription drugs in the U.S.,” Dr. Benjamin Rome, a health policy researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, told Reuters.
Pfizer announced price hikes on around 80 different drugs, including cancer drug Ibrance, migraine pill Nurtec, and Paxlovid, which is used to help treat Covid-19, as well as some drugs administered in hospitals such as morphine and hydromorphone.
Most of Pfizer’s increases are below 10 percent, apart from a 15 percent cost boost of the Covid vaccine Comirnaty. The company said it had adjusted the average list price of its innovative medicines and vaccines for 2026 below the overall rate of inflation and described the increases as “modest.”
GSK, a European-based drugmaker, said it had plans to increase prices on around 20 drugs and vaccines from 2 percent to 8.9 percent. The company said it is committed to reasonable prices and the hikes are needed to support scientific innovation.
The Independent has contacted the White House and the drugmakers listed by Reuters for comment on the reported price hikes.
