The Trump administration last year came up with a plan to combat high drug prices—making European governments pay more.European governments negotiate directly with drugmakers on prices for their national health systems.The result so far: still-high drug prices in the U.S. and fewer new drugs in Europe.There has been a 27% drop in new drug releases across European countries over the last 17 months, compared with the same period before President Trump announced the plan, according to new data from market-research firm GlobalData. Meanwhile, drug approvals in Europe have held steady over that time period.“You have companies saying, ‘Well maybe I won’t enter the market there because it’s just going to be used against me in the United States,’” said Ipsita Smolinski, director of health-policy research firm Capitol Street.To avoid tariffs, more than 20 drugmakers reached deals with the administration agreeing to not charge much more in the U.S. than they do in a basket of other nations.

The stated goal was to protect Americans from paying high prices and subsidizing the rest of the world’s purchases of medicines at cheaper prices.The program is still being rolled out and could eventually lead to lower drug prices. The costs of popular weight loss and infertility drugs have gone down in 2026 as part of the deals with the Trump administration.Yet some companies have pulled their drugs from certain markets—or didn’t launch in the countries to begin with—so they didn’t have to lower how much they get paid in the U.S.Europeans already wait longer than Americans to get new treatments.

Flavia Topan, a spokeswoman for the European Patients’ Forum, said further delays are concerning.In February, Amgen withdrew a cholesterol-lowering drug from Denmark’s market because of fears that its Danish prices would translate to the U.S. Amgen didn’t respond to requests for comment.Insmed Chief Executive William Lewis said last year that the company was delaying European launches of its chronic-lung-condition drug because of the U.S. policy.

The drug, named Brinsupri, lists for $88,000 a year in the U.S.An Insmed spokesperson said European patients can access the drug through clinical trials and “alternative commercial pathways.”Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan said last month that the company is considering launching new drugs just in Europe’s private market—rather than through government health programs—to avoid agreeing to prices in Europe that could lower the bar for what they can charge in the U.S.Narasimhan said the company would start with an autoimmune-disease drug that is still awaiting regulatory approval in the U.S. and Europe.“We’ve seen the consequences of European price controls, and importing these same policies into the U.S. is the wrong approach,” said Chanse Jones, a spokesman for the industry group Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America. He said the group can’t speak to individual companies’ decisions about when and where they launch new medicines.High drug prices are a potent political issue in the U.S., criticized by lawmakers from both parties.“We believe European nations should contribute to global medical innovation too,” said a Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services spokesperson. “If they are unwilling, the U.S. is not going to force a manufacturer to sell its products at unfairly discounted rates in a European country.”Under the deals reached last year, the “most favored nation” price would be based on the average of the prices charged in a basket of reference countries.President Trump said companies would also sell newly launched drugs and medicines on the TrumpRx website at a lower price.

For its drug Repatha, Amgen did offer a 60% discount off the roughly $6,900-a-year price tag for consumers on that site.The administration agreed to spare companies from tariffs for three years in return for lowering prices.“Starting next year American drug prices will come down fast and furious and will soon be among the lowest in the developed world,” Trump said while announcing pacts with nine drugmakers, including Novartis, last December.Earlier this year, the European Union’s health commissioner probed the policy’s impact but said it was too early to tell. Frank Vandenbroucke, Belgium’s deputy prime minister and minister of health and social affairs, in October co-wrote an article that argued for Europe to fight back against the deals and launch a trade investigation against the U.S.So far, drugmakers are still listing new medicines at high prices in the U.S.

For the 42 new drugs that launched in the U.S. this year, the median list price was $357,000, according to 3 Axis Advisors, a healthcare research firm. The median list price for the new drugs launched in 2025 was $289,980.At least one country has so far said it will pay more for drugs.

The U.K. agreed last year to steps that would allow more high-priced medicines onto the market this year.“I talk a lot with the European governments, and they understand that there is a new reality,” said Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla. “They won’t have these medicines unless they pay for them at the proper cost.”Write to Lizzy Lawrence at lizzy.lawrence@wsj.com