The White House said Friday it’s adding three drugs for diabetes and lung disease to the self-pay platform TrumpRx, as the administration works to expand the site as part of its push to lower drug prices.
The drugs, from German drugmaker Boehringer Ingelheim, are Jentadueto and Jentadueto XR, for Type 2 diabetes, as well as the COPD drug Striverdi Respimat.
According to the White House, the diabetes drugs list for about $525 but are priced on TrumpRx starting around $55, while the COPD drug is listed at about $35, down from roughly $276.
One of the diabetes drugs, Jentadueto, has a generic version that is typically cheaper. For the other drugs, discount prices listed on GoodRx tend to be higher.
“Those are pretty significant discounts,” said Ben Link, a contributor at 46brooklyn, a nonprofit group that tracks prescription drug prices.
Even for Jentadueto, patients typically pay about $25 to $35 at the pharmacy counter for the generic — meaning the TrumpRx price is still competitive, Link said.
The addition comes as the White House continues to build the platform, which launched in January as part of President Donald Trump’s broader push to address soaring health care costs.
But the site has faced criticism for its limited scope, with fewer than 60 drugs listed and discounts that can’t be used with insurance or go toward a deductible. It also primarily offers discounts on brand-name drugs, many of which have cheaper generic equivalents. Similar prices can also be found on other discount sites.
It’s unclear how many people have used TrumpRx discounts to buy prescription drugs. A survey published last week by KFF found that awareness of the site was on the lower end, with about a third of people who take prescription drugs saying they had heard at least something about TrumpRx. Of those, just 7% said they had visited the site to compare prices. That rose to about 16% among people who take GLP-1 medications.
The White House has declined to say how many people have visited the site since it launched.
At STAT News’ Breakthrough Summit East event on Thursday, Chris Klomp, a senior Department of Health and Human Services official, said TrumpRx was never meant to be used by people with health insurance.
Instead, he framed the site as a limited, cash-pay tool rather than a systemwide fix for drug prices.
“The goal was not actually some massive reach,” Klomp said.
Even people with insurance can face high prescription drug costs, especially those with high deductible plans.
A poll published Monday by West Health-Gallup found about 1 in 3 U.S. adults say they’ve made trade-offs to afford health care in the past year, including rationing or skipping medications.
Boehringer Ingelheim is the ninth drugmaker to join the TrumpRx platform, according to the White House.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
