A new agreement between the Trump administration and drug manufacturer Pfizer will exempt the giant from proposed pharmaceutical tariffs in exchange for allegedly cutting price  for American consumers. The deal has inspired Trump to declare victory over Pfizer, telling CEO Albert Bourla, “I’m surprised you’re agreeing to this.”

However, on closer inspection, the deal appears to be more of a bailout for Pfizer than the American people, with broad promises of sweeping drug savings that, in typical Trump fashion, are unfounded.

Pfizer and Trump’s team-up came as a reported “blindside” to other pharmaceutical companies facing pressure to fall in line and buddy up with the administration before it imposes additional tariffs.

The deal, which sent Pfizer’s stock soaring, is well timed: Pfizer estimates it will lose upward of $18 billion in annual revenue by 2028 as the patents for four of its major pharmaceutical products expire, and generic versions enter the market.

Next year, the firm’s patent for pneumococcal vaccine Prevnar 13 will expire; the year after that, so will those for Eliquis, a blood thinner that generated more than $7 billion in 2024 sales, and cancer treatments Ibrance and Xtandi.

“Pfizer’s timing on the Trump deal [is] uncanny, as they would have to lower Eliquis pricing anyway,” MAGA-beloved vaccine skeptic Dr Peter McCullough quipped.

The “confidential” agreement’s most eye-catching public terms are related to Medicaid. Pfizer will now voluntarily offer the program “most favored nation” prices, charging US Medicaid what it charges developing nations for prescription drugs.

However, Medicaid, by law, already shops for the cheapest drugs possible, and pharmaceutical companies are legally required to sell drugs to Medicaid at the lowest global price. And thanks to new Medicaid work requirements in Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, approximately 4.8 million Americans are set to lose their benefits by 2034.

Trump and Pfizer also promised patient savings on a new government-sponsored direct-to-consumer (DTC) pharmaceutical sales website, TrumpRx, which is expected to go live in 2026. Such DTC sites have grown popular — you might recognize sports billionaire Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs — as a way to circumvent price-gouging middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers.

TrumpRx, however, will simply serve as a front to funnel patients to Big Pharma’s already-established DTC drug platforms. The arrangement comes at a good time for Donald Trump Jr, who serves on the board of BlinkRx, an online pharmacy, which just months ago announced its own DTC service.