Millions of Americans Ration Medications
Jake Johnson for Common Dreams
An analysis released Thursday by the advocacy group
Protect Our Care estimates that Johnson & Johnson, Novartis, AbbVie, Merck,
Pfizer, and other pharma behemoths collectively reported $298 billion in
revenue in the first half of the year—a $24 billion increase compared to
2025—and distributed $63 billion in benefits to shareholders in the form of
share repurchases and dividends.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” said Vaishu Jawahar, director of policy programs at Protect Our Care. “While big drug companies make record-breaking sales, raking in billions more than they did last year, a growing number of Americans are struggling to afford their prescription drugs. Yet again, Trump has betrayed the American people and put billionaires ahead of working families.”
Throughout his second White House term,
Trump has made mathematically impossible claims about his efforts to
curb drug costs, asserting repeatedly that he has cut prices by upwards of
1,000%. Critics of the Trump administration’s approach have noted that it has
relied on voluntary and secretive deals with pharmaceutical
companies, which have gone on to raise prices after meeting with the president
and showering him with praise.
One high-profile administration initiative, TrumpRX, has
been widely denounced as a scam that will do
virtually nothing to lower drug costs for most Americans. The
president has also worked to weaken the Medicare drug price
negotiation program established during the Biden
administration.
“Instead of lowering drug prices for seniors, Trump is
holding backroom deals with big drug companies and handing them blockbuster
giveaways,” said Jawahar. “He has created loopholes for industry giants to
evade price negotiations and jack up drug prices for seniors.”
The advocacy group Patients for Affordable Drugs noted in a March report that during the first week of
2026, pharmaceutical companies “increased prices on 64 oncology drugs, with 73%
of hikes exceeding inflation.”
Sixty percent of US adults say they are struggling or
worried about being able to afford their prescription medications, according
to recent polling from the health policy research
organization KFF. The group said that number marked the highest level since
2018.
Separate polling released in March by the West Health-Gallup
Center on Healthcare in
America found that tens of millions of people in the US “said they have made at
least one trade-off with daily living expenses to afford healthcare,” including
skipping a meal, prolonging a current prescription, and cutting back on
utilities.
