The Food and Drug Administration is proposing a system for approving customized drugs and medical treatments for patients with rare or hard-to-treat diseases. The pathway laid out Monday is aimed to approving one-of-a-kind therapies, including those using emerging gene-editing technology. It's a shift long sought by patients, advocates and researchers focused on rare diseases, which often do not fit within the pharmaceutical industry's business model. For many rare diseases, drug companies have had little financial incentive to develop new treatments. The FDA proposal, if finalized, would codify a path for drugmakers and researchers to study and commercialize treatments without conducting large, expensive clinical trials.

The Trump administration is set to launch TrumpRx, a website to help patients buy prescription drugs directly from manufacturers at discounted rates. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Thursday's expected unveiling in a social media post. The website is not a purchasing platform but directs users to drugmakers' own sites. President Trump first mentioned TrumpRx in September, highlighting deals with pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices. The website's release faced delays, but it now showcases efforts to reduce costs through agreements with major companies like Pfizer and AstraZeneca. However, the actual savings for consumers remain unclear.

The Trump administration says pharmaceutical companies have agreed to slash the Medicare prices for 15 prescription drugs after months of negotiations and that it's expected to produce billions in savings for older adults. But the net prices unveiled Tuesday aren't what Medicare recipients will pay at their pharmacy counters because those final amounts will depend on each individual's plan and how much they spend annually on prescriptions. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. touted the deals as part of efforts to address affordability concerns. The negotiation program is mandated by law and began under the Biden administration.

President Donald Trump has signed an executive order setting a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to lower the cost of prescription drugs in the U.S. or face new limits down the road over what the government will pay. The Republican president's order Monday calls on the health department to broker new price tags for drugs. If deals are not reached, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be tasked with developing a rule tying the price the U.S. pays for medications to lower prices paid by other countries. The nation's pharmaceutical lobby calls Trump's order a "bad deal" for American patients. Drugmakers argue threats to their profits could impact research to develop new drugs.

Taxpayers are expected to save billions after the Biden administration inked deals with pharmaceutical companies to knock down the list prices for 10 of Medicare's costliest drugs. But how much older Americans can expect to save when they fill a prescription at their local pharmacy remains unclear, since the list cost isn't the final price people pay. The list prices of drugs including blood thinners, diabetes drugs and blood cancer medications will be reduced by hundreds — in some cases, thousands — of dollars for 30-day supplies. White House officials say they expect taxpayers to save $6 billion and older adults could save about $1.5 billion in total. The new prices won't go into effect until 2026.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare enrollees who take expensive medicines could save thousands of dollars a year under the Democrats' sweeping social …