After a year filled with tariffs, partnership deals, and government reworks aiming to reduce the cost of healthcare and medications for American citizens, multiple pharmaceutical companies, including the 16 companies with deals with the Trump administration, have announced new list prices for 2026. The reveal increases pricing for dozens of name brand medications.

The news comes on the heels of President Trump calling for Congress to enact his most recent attempt to lower healthcare costs in America, The Great Healthcare Plan. The proposal is a series of measures aiming to lower drug prices and insurance premiums, maximize price transparency, and hold large insurance companies accountable, and is expected to build on the Most-Favored-Nation deals that President Trump struck with several drug manufactures in order to achieve similar low prices for medications paid by other countries.¹

According to a new analysis from 46brooklyn, drug companies have hiked up the price of 872 different name brand medications, ranging from covid vaccine shots, treatments for cancer, Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and more² over the first two weeks of 2026.

Amongst the companies raising list prices are 16 who have already joined TrumpRx, the government’s direct-to-patient (DTC) platform designed to provide U.S. patients with access to medicines at discounted rates. Companies such as AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Eli Lilly & Novo Nordisk, Johnson & Johnson, and nine additional companies have all agreed to join the DTC program in an effort to provide affordable mediations, for citizens, but continue to raise drug prices.

"The real truth serum is what's happening in the marketplace after those deals occur," says Antonio Ciaccia, CEO of 46brooklyn. "January is prime time for list price changes on brand-name drugs. So in examining where we are today, we're pretty much in line with the last few years."

How much was the price increase?

The median price increase came in at 4% or the same increase as last year, and continues the trend of recent years in which the median price increase has worked its way down from its previous average of 10%, according to reports from 46Brooklyn.

According to a report from NPR, Pfizer has raised the price of 72 products this month along with a 15% price increase for its Covid vaccine shot. Additionally, Merck raised prices for 18 medications, including Isentress for HIV and Belsomra for insomnia, according to data from 46Brooklyn.

How does the price increase affect the deals with the Trump administration?

With pharmaceutical list prices marking the starting point for negotiations between insurers and pharmacy benefit managers, list prices impact what drugs insurers select to cover along with the price that patients ultimately pay out of pocket.¹

Kush Deai, a spokesperson for The White House, was asked about the impact the price increase has on the deals with pharmaceutical manufactures. Deai responded that the list prices “ aren't important” and continued to note that the discounts addressed in the deals are coming to state Medicaid programs and patients who want to pay cash for some prescriptions, according to a report from NPR.¹

"Those deals probably are not very important in terms of manufacturer drug pricing and the prices paid by most Americans for prescription drugs," says Dr. Ben Rome, a health policy researcher at Brigham and Women's Hospital.

Sources

1. Trump Struck Deals with 16 Drug Companies. But They're Still Raising Prices this Year NPR January 16, 2026 https://www.npr.org/2026/01/16/nx-s1-5678915/trumprx-pharma-drug-price-deals-list-prices
2. This is the Way … to Analyze Changes in Brand Drug List Prices 46Brooklyn AccessedJanuary 19, 2026 https://www.46brooklyn.com/branddrug-boxscore
3. Drugmakers Hiked Prices for Hundreds of Drugs in Early January NPR January 14, 2025 https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/01/14/nx-s1-5250174/drug-prices-rise-drugmakers