Regeneron joins Trump drug pricing deal, offers gene therapy free to patients

Regeneron said it will give its newly approved gene therapy, Otarmeni, free to eligible U.S. patients, while cutting the price of its cholesterol drug Praluent to $225 through the government’s TrumpRx portal and lowering Medicaid prices for its current and future medicines. The move puts immediate dollars-and-cents stakes on President Donald Trump’s most favored nation pricing push, with the White House saying Regeneron was the 17th and final drugmaker to sign onto the campaign.

The company’s timing was striking. The Food and Drug Administration approved Otarmeni, also known as lunsotogene parvec-cwha, on April 23, 2026, the first and only gene therapy for a rare genetic form of hearing loss caused by biallelic OTOF variants. The condition affects about 50 newborns a year in the United States, making the therapy a narrowly targeted treatment for a very small patient population. By offering it free to eligible patients, Regeneron is betting that the most dramatic benefit of the deal will land in families facing one of the rarest hearing disorders in medicine.

The White House said the announcement was scheduled for a 3 p.m. ET Health Care Affordability Event on April 23, 2026, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt signaled the deal on X. It followed Trump’s May 12, 2025 executive order launching the most favored nation initiative, which aimed to align U.S. drug prices with the lowest prices paid by comparable developed nations. Trump then sent letters in July 2025 to 17 major pharmaceutical companies, and the White House has said all 17 eventually agreed to deals.

The administration is presenting the agreement as proof that its affordability strategy is working, but the savings will depend on how the terms operate at the counter and in the clinic. Regeneron’s Medicaid price cuts could reduce what states and public programs pay, but that does not automatically translate into the same relief for every patient. Praluent’s $225 price on TrumpRx is more concrete for consumers, yet only people who can use the portal and meet any purchase conditions will see it. The free gene therapy offer may be the most meaningful promise of the deal, but its impact will hinge on eligibility rules, coverage decisions, and whether access barriers keep rare-disease families from reaching treatment.

The White House has already argued that earlier agreements would give every state Medicaid program access to most favored nation prices and expand direct-to-consumer TrumpRx discounts. Nine manufacturers, including Amgen, Bristol Myers Squibb, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Gilead Sciences, GSK, Merck, Novartis and Sanofi, were part of that earlier wave. Still, analysts have warned that the framework may favor larger drugmakers with broad product portfolios while smaller and midsized biotech companies face greater pressure, a tension that now sits behind the administration’s latest affordability victory lap.