By Mrinalika Roy and Michael Erman
(Reuters) -Bristol Myers and Pfizer said on Thursday they will start selling their blockbuster blood thinner, Eliquis, directly to cash-paying U.S. patients at a discount to its listed price as drugmakers are under pressure from the Trump administration to lower prices.
The initiative is targeted at the small percentage of patients on Eliquis who are uninsured or underinsured, and health pricing experts cautioned that the discounted price might still be too high for many of those consumers.
The program – which would bypass traditional pharmacy benefit managers and insurers – offers a roughly 43% discount from the list price, cutting the treatment’s monthly cost from around $606 to $346.
But it would still cost more than 9 times the average out-of-pocket cost paid by commercially insured patients.
The new discounted price is also significantly higher than the $231 per month Medicare price that former President Joe Biden’s administration negotiated under the Inflation Reduction Act, which is set to take effect next year, and the price of the drug abroad.
“This discount is not as meaningful as that delivered through the IRA negotiations – those discounts have been ridiculed by Trump as not meaningful, so there’s potential for skepticism from the administration on this offer,” Bernstein analyst Courtney Breen said in a note.
The Trump administration has ramped up efforts to tackle high U.S.
prescription drug prices through a “most-favored-nation” (MFN) policy, aiming to align domestic prices with the lowest levels paid by comparable high-income countries.
According to a 2024 report from the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee, the cost of Eliquis was around $55 a month in France and $65 a month in the UK and Germany.
“These prices aren’t really a good deal for most consumers,” Stacie Dusetzina, professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said, adding that patients without health insurance are generally less able to shoulder high out-of-pocket costs for drugs than those who are insured.
“We know that once patients have to pay more than $100 out-of-pocket, they are much more likely not to fill their prescriptions,” she added.
Eligible patients will be able to buy the drug directly through the Eliquis 360 Support program from September 8.
Since its launch, Eliquis has been prescribed to over 15 million Americans and in 2024 it generated about $11.4 billion in global revenue.
(Reporting by Bhanvi Satija and Mrinalika Roy in Bengaluru, Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Tasim Zahid and Leroy Leo)
