Author: Lucy Chard 13th February 2026

The eyes of the world are all on the USA right now. For various reasons. For the pharmaceutical industry, the US has been monopolising focus for several years now, with changing legislature around healthcare provision and drug pricing negotiations.

In more recent months, the government shut down led to the halting of the FDA, and any drug approvals and licensing as a result, leading to an unexpected standstill in the rollout of new drugs for patients across America. 

In January, The White House announced it’s notice to leave the World Health Organisation (WHO) had come to and end (after the intention to leave was formally put into motion in an executive order signed in January of 2025), with two years of membership dues still outstanding. 

The face of healthcare in the USA is changing, and there’s no going back now. The drug prices for 10 key drugs that were agreed in 2024 with key drug makers as a part of the Inflation Reduction Act under the Biden Administration have been implemented as of the start of the year. This is set to save US$1.5 billion in costs for Medicare beneficiaries and saving the Medicare programme US$6 billion per year [1]. This initiative has been broadened under the Trump administration as the ‘Most Favoured Nations Policy’, which aims to further cut drug prices to citizens by enabling ‘direct-to-consumer’ purchasing programmes [2]. On 15th January 2026 President Trump announced ‘The Great Healthcare Plan’ [3].

He went on to state:

“Your prescription drugs will come way, way down and, under this policy, the prices of many drugs will be slashed by 300, 400 even 500% starting this month…”.

Currently, it’s difficult to predict how this will manifest and specifically affect pharmaceutical companies making the drugs, and the impact this could have on innovation within the industry.  Alex Schriver, Senior Vice President of PhRMA's Public Affairs team stated [4]: 

"Imposing broad-based price controls does nothing to address insurance barriers and would instead threaten access to breakthrough treatments and undermine critical investments that strengthen the US economy. The Trump administration has rightly called out other countries for failing to pay their fair share for medicines. Importing those same flawed policies into the US would undermine our leadership at a time when China is poised to surpass us in medicine development". 

2026 will spell a pivotal year in how pharmaceutical companies intend to navigate these new policies and measure up to increased competition from other countries.

Biotech boom – deals setting the scene for the future

The pharmaceutical regulatory landscape in the USA has created an unpredictable market, however, even in the face of this increased level of risk, biotechnology investments are on the rise, after several years of low uptake. 

The USA pharmaceutical market size was estimated at US$634.32 billion in 2024, with predictions to grow to a value of US$883.97 billion by 2030. Developments in cancer therapeutics, reinvestment into neurological diseases, and notably the transformative production of GLP-1 receptor agonists [5] reshaping weight loss care has rocketed the industry’s momentum. This has attracted new investment across these fields, with mergers and acquisitions in the latter half of 2025 booming, with roughly 28 deals worth US$50 million or more were announced [6].

Fragility around the US market could make space for competition from other highly technological countries. The FDA shut down in the US could leave companies looking for stability, and turning to ecosystems that promise a less rocky journey. The biotech environment in China has been experiencing a determined rise, and with many companies investing there – including a recent US$15 billion investment from pharma giant AstraZeneca into R&D and pharma manufacturing companies operations in the country – could spell dominance for China in this market. 

CPHI Americas’ role in industry insight
The current climate in US pharmaceuticals means that the CPHI Americas event will be more pertinent than ever, bringing together leaders across the industry to work together to discuss challenges and engage in collaborative efforts to ensure investment and progress continues to be pushed forward. 

The event will not only facilitate meetings for leading companies and bodies, but also provides insights from experts in the field in the content theatres. The topics mentioned in this article will be discussed at a high level across the four tracks, falling within Market & Policy Insights, Next-Gen Bio, US Manufacturing, and AI & Emerging Technology.

With panels covering the direction the US market takes now, and how this will shape its long-term influence, determining how effectively the industry balances progress with stability, with foresight from speakers from Takeda and Pfizer among others.

The trends shown by the novel drug approvals from 2025 indicate that technology and research into areas such as oncology, cell and gene therapies, and biologics are accelerating. Coupled with the use of AI in R&D, and increasingly in pharma manufacturing, the processes from drug discovery to manufacturing is becoming more and more streamlined.

Companies such as Eli Lilly are recognising the importance of reshoring in the US, with the announcement of their 10th manufacturing site there in the last 6 years, with aims of cultivating a competitive edge in sterile injectables and beyond.

CPHI Americas is seeking to inform on strategies such as this to ensure that the industry can keep up with, or even outstrip policy changes, securing companies and the market as a whole for the future.