By Elsa Ohlen

Shares of pharmaceutical companies dropped early Monday after President Donald Trump said he would lower the cost of medicines for Americans by between 30% and 80%.

Shares of major U.S. drugmakers Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Merck, AbbVie and Amgen fell between 2% and 4% in premarket trading Monday.

The U.S. is the largest market for many global pharmaceutical companies, partly because of higher prices. Shares of European drugmakers like Novo Nordisk, Novartis and Roche also fell between 2% and 5% in morning trading.

Trump said he will institute a so-called "most-favored-nation" drug price policy, whereby the U.S. will pay the same price as the lowest price paid by comparable nations, in a post on social-media platform Truth Social late Sunday.

The price of prescription drugs can be as much as four times as high in the U.S. than in other wealthy nations, a Health Department-contracted study found in 2024.

The drop in pharma stocks comes as most of the market is rallying following a 90-day pause on the bulk of tariffs on trade between the U.S. and China, announced early Monday.

Write to Elsa Ohlen at elsa.ohlen@barrons.com

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May 12, 2025 07:10 ET (11:10 GMT)

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