While President Donald Trump spared pharma from his initial round of tariffs, talk of impending levies for the industry is far from over. At the same time, drugmakers have boosted domestic production, including Roche, which announced yesterday a plan to spend $50 billion over five years, expanding manufacturing capacity in the U.S. Other pharma giants like Novartis, J&J and Eli Lilly have also recently announced billions in investments.

But tariffs aren’t the only blow pharma has to parry –– a rumor has emerged that the Trump administration is once again considering tying U.S. drug prices to those in other developed nations, Reuters reported yesterday. Trump unsuccessfully tried to implement a “most favored nation” rule during his first term that would have closed the pricing gap on certain drugs. Such a policy, if proposed again by CMS, would be an “existential threat” to the U.S. pharma industry, a source said. 

For now, no agency has officially proposed the action, and Trump’s executive order last week aiming to lower drug prices made no mention of the most favored nation policy. Today, we’re diving deeper into that wide-ranging executive order, including how it addresses a part of the Medicare drug price negotiation program that has been a thorn in the industry’s side.

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Editor’s note: Instead of running the annual PharmaVoice 100 list, we are now taking a new approach and featuring standout leaders all year round in a range of ongoing series. Find out more here and reach out if you know a leader who’d be a great fit.