FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 15, 2026
Contact: minority_jecpress@jec.senate.gov
NEW: Trump Increased His Big Pharma Holdings by More Than $50 Million; His Giveaways to Big Pharma Jack Up Seniors’ Cancer Drug Costs by Thousands
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee – Minority today released a new report that finds that President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ 2025 giveaway to pharmaceutical companies will cost seniors thousands more in out-of-pocket costs for key cancer treatment drugs. As Trump used the presidency to help pharmaceutical companies boost their own profits, the Committee also found that Trump increased his own stock holdings in these companies immensely.
Key new calculations from the Committee:
- Trump and Congressional Republicans’ 2025 Big Pharma giveaway will force seniors on Medicare to pay thousands more in out-of-pocket costs for key treatments – including $21,800 more for Ultomiris, to treat certain auto-immune conditions; along with $9,000 more for Adcetris and $5,200 more for Keytruda, which are both cancer treatment drugs.
- Trump bought a massive quantity of pharmaceutical stocks in 2025, which increased his stock holdings in the sector from as much as $1.7 million in 2024 to as much as $56.2 million in 2025.
- In 2025, Trump held as much as $39.1 million in stock in the same Big Pharma companies that directly benefited from the giveaway that he and Congressional Republicans devised.
- In turn, these Big Pharma companies reported at least $54 billion in U.S. sales of drugs that benefitted from the carveout in 2025, a 13 percent increase from the year before.
“Trump and Congressional Republicans intentionally force seniors to pay more for cancer treatment so that Big Pharma can rake in more money that Trump can personally profit from. It’s outrageous and yet typical from this President, who makes the American people foot the bill again and again for his own gains,” said Senator Maggie Hassan, Ranking Member of the Joint Economic Committee.
The new Joint Economic Committee – Minority report outlines the impact of Trump and Congressional Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included a provision that blocks Medicare from negotiating lower prices for key commonly used, high-cost prescription drugs. This giveaway adds around $9 billion to the deficit.
The Committee calculated how much more Medicare recipients will have to pay for nine key prescription drugs, based on the expected price cut that they would have had if Trump and Congressional Republicans had not blocked Medicare from negotiating lower prices. The Committee also analyzed Trump’s annual financial disclosures to determine his total increase in stock holdings in pharmaceutical companies and specifically the companies that benefited from Trump and Congressional Republicans’ giveaway.
Read the full report here.
###