President Donald Trump has announced a deal that is set to slash the cost of fertility treatments for millions of Americans.
In a press conference from the Oval Office, the commander-in-chief said his administration had reached a deal with the USarm of German drugmaker Merck to reduce the price of its medications used in in-vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments.
He also said he would soon issue guidance encouraging employers to offer fertility benefits directly to their employees.
The president said: ‘We’ll dramatically slash the cost of IVF and the treatment and many of the most common fertility drugs for countless millions of Americans.’
He added: ‘This will make all fertility care far more affordable and accessible.
‘The result will be healthier pregnancies, healthier babies and, overall, a lot more American children.’
Nearly 10million women in the US struggle to conceive, estimates suggest, while the average cost for one cycle of IVF is around $25,000.
At the same time, many couples seeking fertility treatments require multiple rounds of IVF in order to have a successful pregnancy.
Donald Trump is pictured above at the press conference today where he announced the slashing of costs for fertility treatments
He is shown above flanked by the director of Medicare and Medicaid Services Dr Mehmet Oz alongside billboards put out for the conference
In the US, about 432,000 IVF cycles were carried out in 2023, resulting in 91,771 babies.
The president continued: ‘In the Trump administration, we want to make it easier for couples to have babies, raise children and start the families they’ve always dreamed of.’
He added: ‘As a result of these actions, the per cycle cost of drugs used in IVF will fall by an estimated 73 percent for American consumers, and the numbers are going to actually be very substantially higher as time goes by.’
The administration has made a deal with EMD Serono, the US arm of the drugmaker Merck, which is also a leading manufacturer of fertility drugs.
It is a major manufacturer of the drug Gonal-F, a medication used early in IVF cycles to stimulate the ovaries to release an egg.
According to GoodRx, the drug is priced at about $2,400 per dose out-of-pocket in the US. For comparison, in Europe, the price is around $300.
Under the deal, EMD Serono has agreed to sell its drugs directly to consumers at significantly reduced prices in exchange for tariff relief.
The deal also affects its drug Ovidrel, which is administered in IVF just before an egg is retrieved, and Cetrotide, which is used in the cycle to prevent the early release of an egg.
Trump is shown above at the press conference today in the Oval Office at the White House
Overall, when all three therapies are used in a cycle, Merck said patients will receive an 84 percent discount off list prices.
The drugs are expected to be available at lower prices via the federal website TrumpRx, from which they will be sold directly to consumers.
Trump made the announcement today flanked by his Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Junior, the head of the FDA Dr Marty Makary, the head of Medicare and Medicaid Services Dr Mehmet Oz, and others involved in the push to slash the cost of IVF.
It comes after the administration struck deals with pharmacy giants Pfizer and AstraZeneca over the past month to slash costs for consumers.
Under the deals, both manufacturers will now sell their drugs to Medicaid, the health insurance program for lower-income Americans, at the same price as in Europe, and also offer their drugs at ‘most favoured nation’ prices, the same price as that in developed nations, on a direct-to-consumer federal website called TrumpRx.
In return, both companies have been promised a three-year reprieve from tariffs, after the president threatened to impose a tariff of up to 15 percent on brand-name drugs from the European Union and 100 percent from other parts of the world.
