Trump unveils deal with Regeneron to lower drug prices as part of most-favored-nation initiative

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a deal with drugmaker Regeneron to lower the cost of its pharmaceutical products as part of the White House's signature drug pricing initiative.

The deal involves Regeneron lowering the prices of all its current and future drugs on Medicaid, according to Trump. It also involves selling a cholesterol drug called Praluent for $225 on the White House's discounted drug website TrumpRx, according to the agreement first outlined by NOTUS and confirmed in a White House fact sheet.

The deal comes as the Trump administration has been touting efforts to provide economic relief ahead of November's midterm elections, with Americans saying high costs for health care, gas, groceries and other basic needs are straining their budgets.

It's one of many so-called most-favored-nation deals the Trump administration has made with drug companies to bring U.S. pharmaceutical prices to the same level as other developed nations. Last July, Trump publicly sent letters to executives at 17 major pharmaceutical companies about the issue. Regeneron is the final one of those companies to strike a deal with his administration.

Speaking at the White House on Thursday to announce the deal, Trump touted the discounts on drugs and said, “It should be front page news.” He said voters in this November's midterm elections should reward his party because of the agreements with drugmakers.

“We should win the midterms, but it doesn’t work that way, unfortunately,” Trump said.

Trump also has a notable history with the drugmaker.

During his first term in 2020, when he was hospitalized with COVID-19, he was given a dose of a drug that Regeneron was testing to supply antibodies in order to help his immune system.

After he was released, Trump posted a video of himself standing outside the White House in which he repeatedly lavished praise on Regeneron.

As part of the new deal, Regeneron has also committed to spending $27 billion in research, development and manufacturing in the U.S., according to the White House fact sheet. Trump’s deals have historically offered companies relief from his tariffs if they make such commitments.

Regeneron also announced Thursday that Otarmeni, its new gene therapy for a rare form of congenital hearing loss, had been approved by the Food and Drug Administration and would be made available to clinically eligible individuals in the U.S. at no charge. The therapy received expedited approval from the FDA under the agency’s so-called Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher program.

The program, which was not authorized by Congress, has been under scrutiny from Democrats in Congress for months. House and Senate lawmakers have noted that FDA vouchers have repeatedly gone to companies that agree to pricing concessions sought by the White House.

Even as Trump and his Department of Health and Human Services have touted his drug-pricing deals as transformative, the details of the agreements have so far not been made public.

Pressed by members of Congress to share the contracts this week, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said his team would share whatever details it could that didn't include proprietary information or trade secrets. Trump and Kennedy have urged Congress to codify the deals into law.

The deals have occasionally run into roadblocks. A centerpiece of the agreements with weight-loss drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk fell apart earlier this week when Medicare delayed implementation of a program for insurers to cover the GLP-1 drugs.

Drug prices for patients in the U.S. can depend on a number of factors, including the competition a treatment faces and insurance coverage. Most people have coverage through work, the individual insurance market or government programs like Medicaid and Medicare, which shield them from much of the cost.

Patients on Medicaid, the state and federally funded program for people with low incomes, already pay a nominal co-payment of a few dollars to fill their prescriptions, but lower prices could help state budgets that fund the programs.

Associated Press writers Matthew Perrone and Michelle L. Price contributed to this report.

Sierra Smith holds her son Travis, 2, during an event on health care affordability with President Donald Trump, and others, in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz speaks speaks during an event on health care affordability in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks as President Donald Trump and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick listen during an event on health care affordability in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Travis Smith, 2, crawls on the floor as President Donald Trump speaks during an event on health care affordability in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

President Donald Trump speaks during an event on health care affordability in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, April 23, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. testifies before a Senate Committee on Finance hearing on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, April 22, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

President Donald Trump speaks during an event for NCAA national champions in the State Dining Room of the White House, Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Authorities say a former North Carolina law enforcement officer planned to kill Black people in a mass shooting at a major New Orleans festival but was arrested at a Florida hotel with a handgun and hundreds of rounds of ammunition.

Authorities in several states did not name the event, but the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, commonly known as Jazz Fest, runs from Thursday through May 3. The gathering attracted about 460,000 people last year, organizers said.

Christopher Gillum of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, was wanted for “terroristic threats,” the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office in Florida posted online Thursday. Federal authorities told the sheriff's office that Gillum, who is white, was in the Florida Panhandle “heading to do a mass shooting at a large festival in Louisiana.” The FBI in New Orleans said it's working on the investigation with law enforcement across the three states.

The Okaloosa sheriff’s office said Gillum was arrested without incident Wednesday night at a hotel in the city of Destin, and posted a photo of him being led away in handcuffs. Deputies recovered a handgun and about 200 rounds of ammunition from the hotel room, the statement said.

Gillum was arrested as a fugitive from justice and will be extradited to Louisiana to face charges there, the sheriff’s office said. It was not immediately known if he had a lawyer. The Associated Press left a message at phone numbers listed for him.

Gillum’s family reported him missing on Tuesday and he has a history of self-harm, according to Lt. Clint Lyons of the Alamance County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina. Gillum’s family told law enforcement he had a gun and had “expressed recent threats to harm ‘Black people,’” according to a bulletin from police in Burlington, North Carolina.

Lyons said Gillum left the state before his agency could prepare the paperwork to involuntarily commit him to psychiatric treatment. Lyons said there were no criminal grounds to detain Gillum despite his comments about Black people “because there was no victim,” however the agency decided it needed to spread the word about him to other departments.

Gillum was located and stopped by law enforcement in Oklaloosa County on Wednesday, according to Lyons and the Burlington police bulletin.

However, he “did not present any grounds for involuntary commitment or criminal charges” and was allowed to continue on his way, the bulletin stated. Gillum told officers he was “enroute to New Orleans,” the report added.

Okaloosa deputies were initially asked to make a “welfare check” on him Wednesday morning but they didn't know he'd been making violent threats, sheriff spokesperson Michele Nicholson said. Later that day, after the sheriff's office learned Gillum was being investigated, deputies surveilled him until an arrest warrant arrived from Louisiana, she added.

“At this time, there are no known direct threats to any festivals in Louisiana,” State Police spokesperson Trooper Danny Berrincha said.

Gillum served as a sworn police officer in Chapel Hill from 2004 until his resignation in 2019, town spokesperson Alex Carrasquillo said.

He worked as a police officer in the coastal town of Carolina Beach from October 2019 until his resignation the following October, town administrative services officer Sheila Nicholson said. Gillum became a detention officer in October 2023 with the Orange County, North Carolina, sheriff’s office and left in July 2024, spokesperson Alicia L. Stemper said.

He returned the Chapel Hill police force as a non-sworn employee in 2024 before leaving again by the end of the year, Carrasquillo said. He was then rehired as an Orange County sheriff's deputy in January 2025 but resigned that September, she said.

Mustian reported from Natchitoches, Louisiana, and McCormack from Concord, New Hampshire. Associated Press writer Allen G. Breed in Wake Forest, North Carolina, contributed.

A New Orleans Police Department officer monitors a crowd on the first day of the 2026 New Orleans Jazz Heritage Festival in New Orleans on Thursday, April 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Stephen Smith)

This booking photo provided by the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office on Thursday, April 23, 2026, shows Christopher Gillum. (Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office via AP)

This photo provided by the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office on Thursday, April 23, 2026, shows a handgun and ammunition recovered from Christopher Gillum's room after he was arrested at a hotel in Destin, Fla. (Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office via AP)

This photo provided by the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office shows Christopher Gillum being arrested Wednesday, April 22, 2026, at a hotel in Destin, Fla. (Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office via AP)