U.S. pharmaceutical giant Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) announced Monday its new flagship drug will launch at the same price overseas in the UK as in the U.S., a precedent-breaking move reflecting President Donald Trump’s push to end higher drug costs for Americans.
BMS will launch schizophrenia drug Cobenfy (xanomeline and trospium chloride) in the United Kingdom in 2026 at a list price equal to that in the U.S. The move makes BMS the first to align U.S. and overseas pricing in a huge victory for Trump that validates his push to force change in the industry to end “foreign free-riding.”
“We agree with the Trump Administration that other countries need to pay their fair share,” said Adam Lenkowsky, Chief Commercialization Officer, Bristol Myers Squibb. “By making this commitment, we are asking the UK to step up in recognizing the value of truly innovative therapies.”
Trump announced in May that he would sign an executive order on drug pricing to “do the right thing, something that the Democrats have fought for many years.”
“For many years the World has wondered why” prescription and pharmaceutical drugs are so much more expensive in the U.S. than they are “in any other nation,” Trump pointed out in a Truth Social post in May, adding that sometimes they are “five to ten times more expensive than the same drug, manufactured in the exact same laboratory or plant, by the same company.”
“I will be instituting a MOST FAVORED NATION’s POLICY whereby the United States will pay the same price as the Nation that pays the lowest price anywhere in the World,” he announced, predicting “Prescription Drug and Pharmaceutical prices will be REDUCED, almost immediately, by 30% to 80%.”
After the EO was signed, Breitbart News Economics Editor John Carney called Trump’s move “a starting point” and “a long-overdue assertion of national interest in a sector that has for too long been shielded from scrutiny.”
“Its success will depend on implementation, legal resilience, and follow-through in negotiations,” he wrote for Breitbart Business Digest in May. “But the principle it asserts is clear and long overdue: Americans should not be forced to overpay for medicine so that foreign governments can underpay.”
Monday’s announcement is good news for patients who have long borne the burden of higher U.S. drug prices.
Trump has long prioritized the issue. In an interview in September, he told Fox, “for years, we’ve been paying sometimes for a pill, $100, and [other countries] are paying $10 … We’re going to be reducing drug costs over the next year, year and a half,” calling his predicted developments “a monumental change in healthcare.”
Carney explained that the discrepancy in prices in the U.S. and overseas is “because every other developed country uses some form of centralized price negotiation or regulation. The U.S. stands virtually alone in letting manufacturers name their price — then requires insurance plans, public and private alike, to cover those products.”
“That is not a market. That is a racket.”
Guy Oliver, General Manager, Bristol Myers Squibb UK, acknowledged those challenges, as well as the need for the UK government to come to the table — a move it would not have made without Trump’s prodding.
“Despite the UK’s challenging commercial environment, we are committed to working with the NHS, NICE and other authorities to make this medicine available to all eligible UK patients,” he said. “However, to enable us to achieve this goal, a new approach is needed. We therefore call on the Government to collaborate with the life sciences sector to increase investment in new medicines and fully recognise the value that innovation brings to patients, society, and the UK’s long-term prosperity.”
Importantly, BMS is willing to walk away from the U.K. market if regulatory agencies refuse to purchase the drug at the same pricing offered in the U.S.
“Our intention is to work with the UK health authorities to make this medicine available, but we are prepared to make the difficult decision to walk away if they cannot better recognize the value our medicine brings to patients and society,” Lenkowsky said.
Bradley Jaye is Deputy Political Editor for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter and Instagram @BradleyAJaye.
