Consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen has filed (PDF) a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Department of Commerce (DOC) for failing to provide documents related to President Donald Trump’s most-favored-nation drug pricing policy.
The nonprofit filed the complaint in federal District Court in Washington, D.C., after it made unsuccessful attempts to acquire copies of MFN agreements made between the government agencies and pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Pfizer.
“We are suing the Trump administration to learn exactly what it has negotiated with Big Pharma,” Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines director, said in a release.
A spokesperson for the HHS said the agency does not comment on litigation.
In its lawsuit, Public Citizen cited language in Trump’s MFN announcement from Sept. 30 on the government’s deal with Pfizer, which said that the agreement would “provide every State Medicaid program in the country access to MFN drug prices on Pfizer products” and would guarantee “MFN prices on all new innovative medicines Pfizer brings to market.”
Public Citizen pointed out that the announcement did not include the text of the MFN agreement, which was never released to the public and which Pfizer said was “confidential.”
As for Eli Lilly’s deal with the administration on Nov. 6, Public Citizen cited similar language and the lack of disclosure of the agreement from the company or the government.
Public Citizen made its FOIA requests to the HHS and the DOC on Oct. 21 about the Pfizer deal. It also requested records from Trump’s executive order on May 12, when he directed federal officials to notify drugmakers of MFN pricing targets. On Nov. 9, Public Citizen made requests seeking documents from the Lilly agreement.
“Trump and RFK Jr. pledged ‘radical transparency.’ Instead they’ve given us secret deals with drugmakers,” Maybarduk added. “The secrecy makes it impossible to determine these deals’ effectiveness in lowering some drug prices."
Public Citizen claims that the failure of the agencies to respond to the requests is “unlawful” and “has no legal basis.” The nonprofit is seeking the immediate release of the requested information.
Public Citizen also pointed out in its release that Lilly has received a voucher from the FDA allowing it to “skip the line and get priority review” of its new weight loss pill orforglipron.
“Eli Lilly is expected to make tens of billions of dollars from its sales of the new drug, but it’s not clear that the ‘discounts’ that Trump and Lilly claim their deal will create will make a meaningful difference for patients,” Public Citizen argued.
Pharmaceutical companies have raised the prices of more than 350 branded products already in 2026, according to a report earlier this month from Reuters, citing research from 3 Axis Advisors, a healthcare consulting and research firm. The figure is up from 250 price increases during a similar time frame last year, according to 3 Axis’ 2025 report.
Of the companies that have hiked prices this year, Pfizer leads the pack, according to the report, increasing the rate on 80 of its products, including a 15% bump for the COVID vaccine Comirnaty. The company also has increased the price of COVID antiviral pill Paxlovid.