Trump is coming to Ohio to tout his drug program. Is there anything new about it?

President Donald Trump is scheduled to visit Cincinnati on Wednesday to talk up his new prescription drug plan.

An Ohio-based expert said there isn’t much novel about it and reporting has shown that about half of the 43 drugs covered under TrumpRx have generic alternatives that are far cheaper.

As is often the case with Trump, the claims he made about his new program are grand.

“Find the world’s lowest prices on prescription drugs,” is at the top of the program’s website.

“Thanks to President Trump, the days of Big Pharma price gouging are over,” it says further down.

“Leveraging the full weight and power of the United States of America, the president has ensured that every American gets the lowest prices on prescription medications in the developed world.”

There’s quite a bit more to the story, however.

TrumpRx said it gives “most favored nation” pricing to those who use it. But for many drugs, it offers manufacturers’ coupons.

In some cases, they’re limited-time offers. In others, they’re only available through the mail.

And some of the drugs TrumpRx covers have generic alternatives with prices that are just a fraction of what branded versions cost on the new White House platform, the health-journalism organization Stat News reported in February.

The website says it offers the anti-reflux drug Protonix “starting at” $200 for 30 doses. Stat News found that the average price for the drug on TrumpRx was $361.

Meanwhile, a generic version of the same drug — pantoprazole — is available from GoodRx for just $13.82, or one 26th of the cost.

There are cases where TrumpRx offers the best deal.

The fertility drug Cetrotide cost an average $22.50 on the site for a prefilled syringe and vial, Stat News reported. A generic version was $49.50 on Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs, or more than twice as much.

All of those prices are for out-of-pocket payments not involving insurance.

The coupons offer discounts off of list prices that are inflating in part because of rebates huge middlemen known as pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, extract from drugmakers in exchange for covering their products.

Research has shown that as rebates have grown, list prices have inflated.

Antonio Ciaccia, a Columbus-based drug pricing expert, said TrumpRx is essentially duplicating coupon programs many drugmakers already use to assist uninsured patients.

Insurers and their PBMs get rebates off of list prices, so the assistance programs level the field a little for uninsured patients.

“Because all the drugs have these bogus, inflated list prices almost every manufacturer has what is called a patient-assistance program,” Ciaccia said.

“If you lack coverage and you meet certain financial qualifications, the drug company will give you a coupon.”

He added that while the plan isn’t original, it might raise awareness of the discount programs and make them more convenient.

“TrumpRx essentially is taking a lot of these pre-made manufacturer assistance programs that already exist and is white-labeling them and consolidating them in one place,” Ciaccia said.

“The idea of at least aggregating them in one place is good for patient convenience.”

Thanks to some of Trump’s actions in 2025 there will be many more uninsured Americans to serve.

Because of nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid and the expiration of Covid-era insurance subsidies an estimated 15 million people will become uninsured by 2034.

Given that TrumpRx mostly repackages discounts that were already available, it won’t do anything fundamental to change the trajectory of drug prices, Ciaccia said.

“How meaningful are the discounts versus what they will be under these new schemes?” he asked.

“For a patient-assistance program that already exists, you could argue that TrumpRx does zero. It doesn’t necessarily move the needle on what the discounted rates were before it existed versus after.”