Sun Pharma strikes US govt deal to offer cheaper medicines to Americans

India’s largest drugmaker, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries, has signed an agreement with the US government to make medicines more affordable for American patients, according to a PTI report.

Under the agreement, the Mumbai-based pharmaceutical major will provide “Most Favoured Nation” (MFN) pricing to state Medicaid programmes in the US. The arrangement allows buyers to access the lowest available price for a medicine.

In a regulatory filing on Tuesday, Sun Pharma said the MFN pricing commitment will also extend to its future innovative medicine launches in the US.

As part of the agreement, the US government has deferred the imposition of Section 232 tariffs on Sun Pharma’s innovative products for more than two years, citing the company’s investments in the country. The company did not disclose further details of the arrangement.

Sun Pharma’s North America CEO Rick Ascroft, who represented the company at the White House, said the US remains a key market for investment and expansion, spanning clinical development, sales and marketing, as well as API and finished-product manufacturing.

Sun Pharma expands US presence

The US has become Sun Pharma’s largest market for innovative medicines and contributes around 27 per cent of the company’s global revenue.

The company has been steadily expanding its presence in the American market. Earlier this year, Sun Pharma announced a definitive agreement to acquire Organon & Co. in a deal valued at $11.75 billion on an enterprise-value basis.

Sun Pharma said it ranks second in the US dermatology market by prescriptions and is expanding into areas including immunology, cutaneous oncology and ophthalmology. Its global innovative medicines portfolio now contributes around 22 per cent of total sales, according to the company.

Shares of Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd were trading 0.60 per cent lower at Rs 1,944.25 on the BSE on Tuesday.

US strikes more than 20 drug-pricing deals

The Sun Pharma agreement is among a series of deals the US government has reached with pharmaceutical companies to bring down prescription drug costs.

The US has signed pricing agreements with more than 20 drugmakers as part of efforts to make medicines more affordable. According to Reuters, prescription drug prices in the US are often nearly three times higher than those paid by patients in other developed countries.