Pharmaceutical company EMD Serono will lower the cost of a popular fertility drug through a deal struck with the Trump administration. President Donald Trump He said Thursday while also unveiling new federal guidance that he said would encourage employers to offer fertility coverage.
Trump said the new guidance would allow companies to offer fertility benefits separately from major medical insurance plans, as they do with dental and vision plans.
The Oval Office announcement offers a first glimpse at how Trump plans to follow up on his announcement Executive order Earlier this year with the aim of reducing the cost of in vitro fertilization, a medical procedure that helps infertile people start their families. But he is not fulfilling his promise as a candidate to make IVF treatment free. It represents Third deal The administration, along with pharmaceutical companies, has reduced drug prices in recent weeks.
EMD Serono’s Gonal-f is among several medications frequently used by patients undergoing IVF treatments — which involve using hormones to stimulate ovulation, the production of multiple eggs that are retrieved from the ovaries to be fertilized or frozen. Medications can be expensive, often costing patients thousands of dollars for a single IVF cycle. Many patients trying to get pregnant through IVF go through more than one cycle.
Trump said the drug will be available at a discount on TrumpRx, a government website where patients will be able to buy drugs directly from manufacturers.
Trump said the FDA will also work with EMD Serono to speed up approval of another fertility drug available in Europe, called Pergoveris.
Thursday’s announcement comes after Trump issued an executive order in February pledging to make artificial insemination more accessible to everyone. During his election campaign last year, Trump pledged that if elected, he would make IVF treatment free.
“Under the Trump administration, your government will pay — or your insurance company will be authorized to pay — all costs associated with IVF treatment,” he said at an event in Michigan. “Because we want more kids, to put it nicely.”
The pledge came in the wake of mounting pressure after his Supreme Court nominees helped overturn the right to abortion in Roe v. Wade, which launched an effort in GOP-led states to impose new restrictions, including some that threatened access to IVF by trying to define life as beginning at conception.
Roger Scheidlin, CEO of fertility and family-building benefits company WIN, on Wednesday expressed excitement at what he called “steps in the right direction.”
“Any initiative that addresses the cost of medications will have a material positive impact on the overall cost of a fertility cycle,” he said.
Corinne O’Brien, 39, of Birmingham, Alabama, said anything to reduce IVF costs would be “huge for families.”
O’Brien said she underwent three rounds of IVF and gave birth to a daughter in June. Each time, the cost of the medications ranges from about $1,000 to $5,000.
Covering the entire IVF cycle “will ultimately be a game-changer for families,” she said, but helping with the cost of medications “is progress and greatly appreciated.”
O’Brien added that it would be great if more employers covered fertility services, because for many “this is their only chance to expand their family.”
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Swenson reported from New York. Ungar reported from Louisville, Kentucky.
The post ‘We want more babies, to put it nicely’: Trump strikes deal for drugmaker to lower cost of common IVF drug first appeared on Investorempires.com.
