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AstraZeneca has now become the second big drug maker to agree to offer Medicaid its best prices, through a "most-favored-nation" agreement with the administration of President Donald Trump.
The most-favored-nation agreement also requires the company to "offer medicines at a deep discount off the list price when selling directly to American patients," according to the agreement.
Observers say the deal means that AstraZeneca will join Pfizer as one of the drug manufacturers offering drugs through a new federal TrumpRx.gov website.
Pfizer has implied that TrumpRx could be a national web-based outlet mall for prescription drugs.
If TrumpRx became a major source of low-cost drugs, it could compete head-to-head with the web-based pharmacies set up by Amazon, Walmart and Mark Cuban, and it could force all players in the U.S. commercial prescription drug distribution and finance system, including employer health plans and their pharmacy benefit managers, to overhaul their operations.
The Trump administration itself has said that the deal with AstraZeneca could change how U.S. patients with asthma pay for AstraZeneca's Airsupra albuterol inhaler and how patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease pay for the Bevespi Aerosphere glycopyrrolate inhaler.
But the Trump administration has not posted any information about TrumpRx itself.
The American Prospect is reporting that the site might be a price listing site or a site that, in effect, generates leads for the manufacturers' online sales websites or for online outlet prescription drug malls operated by private-sector organizations.
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America hopes to set up an online drug outlet mall at AmericasMedicines.com.
If TrumpRx.gov simply promoted existing web-based pharmacies, it could accelerate employers' efforts to encourage health plan participants to fill their prescriptions online.
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