President Trump said Monday that his online pharmacy, TrumpRx, added more than 600 generic drugs to its direct-to-consumer offerings.
At a White House event announcing the expansion, Mr. Trump company of representatives from several companies that will work with the administration on the initiative. Among them was Mark Cuban, the billionaire entrepreneur who has been one of the president’s most vocal political critics. Mr. Cuban runs an online pharmacy that specializes in offering low prices on generic drugs.
“We have the same thing, one thing, in common: We want to make people better and keep them wealthy,” said Mr. Trump to Mr. Cuban.
Mr. Cuban, who opposed the president’s 2024 re-election campaign, praised Monday 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 drugs directly. It is intended to help Americans find the lowest prices for their medications. The prices listed are for people paying with their own money, although the site advises them to check if they can pay less by going through insurance.
The other partners announced Monday are Amazon’s pharmacy business and GoodRx, a website that allows consumers to compare prices on their drugs.
With prices rising because of the war in Iran, Mr Trump has counted on his drug pricing policies to appeal to Americans concerned about affordability.
Until now, TrumpRx had mostly listed brand-name products, including the hugely popular obesity drugs and infertility treatments. Before Monday’s announcement, the site listed 74 drugs; all are sold by major brand manufacturers, although some have lost patent protection and face generic competition.
About 90 percent of Americans’ prescriptions are generic drugs. The 602 added to the site on Monday include common prescriptions such as blood pressure drugs, antibiotics and statins. Many have prices under $5.
On some of the product pages on the website, users can now pull up a map of their neighborhood, allowing them to compare prices across different pharmacies.
Under the new partnership, the TrumpRx site will in some cases refer users to the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company. Mr. Cuban’s online pharmacy has become popular by finding a niche with certain generic drugs that, due to behind-the-scenes price games, carry high out-of-pocket costs if people use their insurance.
It started operating in 2022 and now offers more than 2,300 medicines. The company brands drugs at a relatively modest 15 percent and sends prescriptions to patients through the mail. Before Monday’s announcement, Mr. Cuban repeatedly praised TrumpRx and said he was open to any good ideas that save Americans money on their prescriptions.
At Monday’s event, a reporter reminded Mr. Trump that Mr. Cuban had endorsed Kamala Harris in her failed 2024 presidential bid. In response, Mr. Trump himself to Mr. Cuban and said, “Well, you made a mistake. It was a big mistake.” Mr. Cuban, who like the president is a former reality TV star, laughed.
Mr. Trump added that he has long respected Mr. Cuban, and that Mr. Cuban’s company “is going to do a lot of business with this.”
In recent months, Mr. Trump struck a series of deals with manufacturers that exempt them from his 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 directly benefit from these measures, such as certain elderly people on Medicare who will soon qualify to pay $50 a month for obesity drugs. But for many Americans struggling with a range of rising costs, the president’s drug pricing has not translated into direct savings.
