Key Points
- Drug companies plan to raise prices on at least 350 medications in 2026. The average price hike is around 4%, similar to last year’s increases.
- The hikes include coverage for COVID, RSV, and shingles vaccines, as well as cancer drugs.
- This is happening despite President Trump’s recent deals to lower some drug prices.
- A few drugs, like the diabetes treatment Jardiance, will see significant price cuts.
Drug companies plan to raise prices on at least 350 medicines in the United States at the start of 2026. This includes popular vaccines for COVID, RSV, and shingles, as well as the blockbuster cancer drug Ibrance. This news comes even as President Trump continues to pressure the industry to lower costs for American patients.
According to new data, the number of price hikes for 2026 is already higher than it was at this time last year. The average increase is approximately 4%, in line with the hikes we saw in 2025. Pfizer is leading the way with plans to raise prices on about 80 different drugs. Most of these increases are below 10%, but the company’s COVID vaccine, Comirnaty, will see a 15% jump.
These price hikes are occurring despite Trump recently striking deals with 14 drugmakers to lower prices for people on Medicaid and those who pay out of pocket.
Many of the same companies that agreed to those deals, including Pfizer and GSK, are now raising prices on their other products. Health policy experts say these deals are not as “transformative” as the administration claims and that companies are just “nibbling around the margins.”
There is some good news, however. A few drugmakers are actually cutting prices on nine of their drugs. The biggest cut is on the diabetes drug Jardiance, which will see its price drop by more than 40%. This is likely because Jardiance is among the 10 drugs for which the government negotiated lower prices as part of its Medicare program.
For now, American patients continue to pay the highest prices in the world for their prescription medicines. Drug companies say the increases are necessary to fund research and keep up with inflation.
Critics argue they are just trying to maximize their profits while the government tries, and mostly fails, to bring costs under control.
