Trump officials met with Walmart on direct-to-patient drug sales

Rachel Cohrs Zhang and Jaewon Kang, Bloomberg News on Jun 27, 2025

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WASHINGTON — U.S. health officials met with with Walmart Inc. and other retailers this week as part of an effort to help Americans get their medicines more directly from companies that make them, according to people familiar with the talks.

The conversations between the Trump administration and experts from the nascent straight-to-consumer drug industry are intended to explore streamlining the way Americans get their medicines, said the people, who weren’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Officials at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services conducted the meeting to discuss options, the people said. It was unclear what the department’s approach and timeline would be in pursuing such a venture.

Walmart and HHS declined to comment.

Reducing America’s drug prices, currently the highest in the world, is one of President Donald Trump’s top health policy goals. In May, he signed an executive order calling on the pharmaceutical industry to cut costs to the lowest level paid by similar countries. Part of that proposal instructed HHS to help Americans directly buy their medicine at those lower prices.

One reason drugs are so expensive in the U.S. is because they go through so many bureaucratic steps before they reach a patient.

Most Americans get their drugs from pharmacies, which are paid primarily by insurance companies. The insurers work with other companies, called pharmacy benefit managers, to negotiate the prices with manufacturers. That process involves rebates, a fee that critics say inflates costs and the industry says is essential to prevent drugmakers from charging exorbitant prices. Trump has been talking about cracking down on PBMs since his first administration.

Walmart started offering prescription delivery in October, making it a competitor to Amazon.com Inc. in the space.