July 27 (Reuters) – AstraZeneca has been adjusting its pricing strategy for new drug launches in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s “most-favoured-nation” policy seeking lower drug prices for Americans, a senior company executive said on Monday.
“Our pricing approach across all of launches now has really evolved in response to MFN,” David Fredrickson, AstraZeneca’s executive vice president for the oncology business, told investors after the company reported second-quarter results.
“With the U.S. now referencing a basket of countries and setting its price, we are seeing productive engagement with payers in the wealthy nations,” he said.
The U.S. policy seeks to tie some U.S. medicine prices to those paid in other wealthy countries, including in Europe. AstraZeneca is one of at least 17 major drugmakers to have signed pricing agreements with the White House.
AstraZeneca and other major drugmakers have warned that lower European prices could increasingly affect returns in the lucrative U.S. market. This has intensified pressure on cash-strapped European governments to pay more for new medicines.
(Reporting by Pushkala Aripaka, Raechel Thankam Job in Bengaluru and Maggie Fick in London; Editing by Arun Koyyur and Devika Syamnath)
