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| Trump to make IVF easier in shock announcement which will impact millions of Americans |
| 2025-10-17 |
| [Daily Mail, where America gets its news] President Donald Trump has announced a deal that is set to slash the cost of fertility treatments for millions of Americans. In a press conference from the Oval Office, the commander-in-chief said his administration had reached a deal with the US arm of German drugmaker Merck to cut the price of its in-vitro fertilization (IVF) medications by up to 84 percent. Trump said he would also soon issue guidance encouraging employers to offer fertility benefits directly to their employees. The president said: 'We’ll dramatically slash the cost of IVF and the treatment and many of the most common fertility drugs for countless millions of Americans.' He added: 'This will make all fertility care far more affordable and accessible. 'The result will be healthier pregnancies, healthier babies and many more beautiful American children.' Nearly 10million women in the US struggle to conceive, estimates suggest, while the average cost for one cycle of IVF is around $25,000, putting it out of reach for most couples. At the same time, many couples seeking fertility treatments require multiple rounds of IVF in order to have a successful pregnancy. In the US, about 432,000 IVF cycles were carried out in 2023, resulting in 95,860 babies, with about one in five cycles resulting in a live birth. The president continued: 'As a result of these actions, the per cycle cost of drugs used in IVF will fall by an estimated 73 percent for American consumers, and the numbers are going to actually be very substantially higher as time goes by.' The administration has made a deal with EMD Serono, the US arm of the drugmaker Merck, which is also a leading manufacturer of fertility drugs. Under the agreement, the manufacturer will now sell its medications direct-to-consumer at lower prices via the federal website TrumpRx. The lower price affects three major IVF drugs, with Merck saying patients will receive an overall discount of 84 percent. Among the drugs that EMD Serono manufactures is Gonal-f, a medication used early in IVF cycles to stimulate the ovaries to release an egg. According to GoodRx, the drug is priced at about $2,400 per dose out-of-pocket in the US. For comparison, in Europe, the price is around $300. The deal also affects its drug Ovidrel, which is administered in IVF just before an egg is retrieved, and Cetrotide, which is used in the cycle to prevent the early release of an egg. Trump said the FDA would also be working with EMD Serono to expedite approval of another one of its fertility drugs available in Europe called Pergoveris. In IVF, this is used to stimulate the growth of follicles in women, or sacs that contain immature eggs. Trump made the announcement today flanked by his Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Junior, the head of the FDA Dr Marty Makary, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Dr Mehmet Oz, and others involved in the push to slash the cost of IVF. It comes after the administration struck deals with pharmacy giants Pfizer and AstraZeneca over the past month to slash costs for consumers. Under the deals, both manufacturers will now sell their drugs to Medicaid, the health insurance program for lower-income Americans, at the same price as in Europe, and also offer their drugs at 'most favoured nation' prices, the same price as that in developed nations, on a direct-to-consumer federal website called TrumpRx. In return, both companies have been promised a three-year reprieve from tariffs, after the president threatened to impose a tariff of up to 15 percent on brand-name drugs from the European Union and 100 percent from other parts of the world. Trump signed an executive order in February directing the government to expand access to IVF and reduce the costs of the popular fertility treatment. During his campaign for the presidency last year, Trump pledged that, if elected, he would make IVF treatment free. |
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