| Author: Alison Kneen, Global Market Access Practice Lead, BioVid
Geopolitics is crucial to understand in today’s pharmaceutical market. This week saw the White House claim that their Most Favored Nation (MFN) policy was going to create potential savings of $529 billion over the next 10 years.
The figure comes from the estimated savings made from pharmaceutical companies that have pledged to launch all future U.S. drugs at prices on par with several high-income countries. The underlying belief is that the U.S. disproportionately finances pharmaceutical innovation while other developed countries benefit from lower regulated prices. The MFN tries to rebalance this as the U.S., according to the Council of Economic Advisors, will not continue to subsidize the rest of the world. However, how does this impact pharmaceutical companies preparing for launch?
Concerns and Potential Impacts
Launch Delays and Pricing Pressures
The administration has suggested that the average net U.S. price across all sectors must not exceed MFN levels, while still allowing pricing flexibility between sectors. This has become more complex as most countries have negotiated separate agreements (e.g., due to the 2025 US–UK pharma agreement, the UK is now part of the U.S. MFN chessboard), forcing higher NHS net prices to avoid triggering lower U.S. Medicare reimbursement rates. This raises questions. Will we see sectoral weighting mechanisms emerge? How will public and commercial channels work under MFN?
Reduced Investor Confidence
The pharmaceutical industry risks losing its global standing as investment plummets, partly due to the increased scrutiny and pricing volatility associated with U.S. benchmarking, a trend noted earlier.
Shifting Strategic Priorities
Pharma companies are prioritizing the protection of U.S. revenues over market access. We are already witnessing changes in the UK and other EU markets, leading to potential delays or cancellation of new medicine launches. In the UK, we are witnessing an Increase in Terminated NICE Appraisals: The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has noted that firms are increasingly terminating NICE appraisals due to lack of confidence in achieving a viable price.
25% Price Increase Plan
Under the new US–UK framework, the UK government agreed to increase the net price paid by the NHS for prospective new medicines by 25% starting April 2026.
Key Points to Takeaway
Understanding the strategic impact of Geopolitics and policy is important, as this changes quickly. It is imperative to monitor market change periodically, testing stakeholder views on potential changes and how to navigate the implications and potential hurdles successfully. At BioVid, we are seeing an increased demand for Market Access Landscape Assessments and our Payer ATUs to keep abreast of the situation.
Revisit Launch Sequencing to assess your pricing strategy as the MFN policy has linked global and U.S. pricing strategies for the first time creating a feedback loop between ex-U.S. and U.S. pricing decisions. On top of that, a shifting political and regulatory environment (tariffs, domestic manufacturing tariffs etc.,) results in a market where pricing, supply chain and market access strategy are interlinked.
Understanding payers is key; they are no longer passive bystanders but rather essential evaluators of evidence and economics.
How a company’s evidence and value is being perceived is essential, with market access evidence now exceeding regulatory requirements. Complete your products Evidence Gap analysis early in the product lifecycle to enable further data collection: RWE to be gathered to support the value communication
Use a Payer ATU to track shifts in measurement, methodologies, and opinions to update your strategy and implementation plan.
Are your pricing, evidence, and launch assumptions prepared for a more interconnected environment? We’d welcome the opportunity to discuss how these dynamics may affect your portfolio. Reach out to marketaccess@biovid.com.
About BioVid
BioVid Corporation is a world-class life science consultancy, specializing in applying cutting-edge behavioral science and AI to commercial and market access strategy. Our areas of specialization include commercial market research and strategic market access consulting. We aim to improve healthcare globally by marrying market opportunity with behavioral insight to optimize our clients’ relationships with their customers.
Learn more at www.biovid.com.