Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has become the latest in a stream of pharma companies to sign a drug pricing deal with the US government under President Donald Trump’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) policy.
Through a voluntary agreement with the Trump administration, J&J will now offer unspecified medicines from its portfolio at lower prices to cash-paying patients through the government-run, direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform, TrumpRx.gov.
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In exchange for slashing its rates on medicines, the New Jersey pharma will gain immunity to the 100% tariffs on imported branded pharmaceuticals threatened by Trump back in April 2025.
J&J’s deal comes amid a swathe of agreements between pharma companies and the Trump administration, with nine deals involving Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, MSD, Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), Boehringer Ingelheim, Novartis and Sanofi announced in December 2025.
Pfizer and AstraZeneca were the first to come to a drug pricing agreement with the White House, with both companies striking deals in October 2025.
These agreements were set in stone after Trump called on 17 large pharma companies to cut drug prices on the US market. Of these 17, AbbVie and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals are the only ones yet to sign an agreement with the Trump administration, although both claim to be in talks with the White House.
According to analysts at GlobalData, parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology, price reductions to branded medicines can only be sustained through a “decisive move away from dependence on imported medicines”, which has led to companies onshoring their manufacturing capacity.
J&J furthers US onshoring efforts
Alongside its MFN deal with the US government, J&J has confirmed that it will be building two new manufacturing facilities on American soil, building on its capacity to align with the US government’s agenda and sustain price cuts within this key market.
The sites – which will be based in Pennsylvania and North Carolina – will manufacture cell therapies and drug products, respectively, and will fall under the company’s $55bn pledge to bolster its US drug manufacturing capacity.
Under this scheme, J&J has invested $2bn into contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO) Fujifilm Biotechnologies’ new drug manufacturing facility in North Carolina, which will be responsible for the large-scale cell culture manufacturing of bulk drug substances.
J&J’s efforts to bolster its US manufacturing fall under the general trend towards onshoring across the key market, as companies across the life sciences sector look to stay competitive on a global scale, while avoiding tariff exposure.
Outside of the US, the European Parliament is drafting reforms to the EU Critical Medicines Act, which hopes to bolster investment in EU-based manufacturing and improve medicines stockpiling to combat shortages.
Adding to GlobalData’s Bio/Pharmaceutical Outsourcing Report from September 2025, which covers this movement, Janet Beal, managing analyst for health economics and market access at GlobalData, noted that the industry is trending towards “balancing global competitiveness amid shifting policy and trade dynamics”.
