In a move that could reshape the landscape of fertility care in the United States, President Donald Trump announced on October 16, 2025, a sweeping agreement with pharmaceutical giant EMD Serono to slash the cost of key fertility medications for Americans struggling to conceive. The deal, which centers on the direct-to-consumer sale of three widely used in vitro fertilization (IVF) drugs at dramatically reduced prices, is being hailed by the administration as its boldest step yet in making family-building more accessible—and affordable—for millions.
Speaking from the Oval Office, flanked by EMD Serono’s U.S. fertility chief Libby Horn, Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.), and officials including Dr. Mehmet Oz, Trump declared, “The initiatives I’ve just announced are the boldest and most significant actions ever taken by any president to bring the miracle of life into more American homes.” According to ABC News, Trump emphasized that the deal “delivers on the president’s pledge” to expand IVF access for Americans hoping to start families, making it a central plank of his campaign and administration agenda.
At the heart of the agreement, EMD Serono—the world’s largest fertility drug manufacturer and a subsidiary of Germany’s Merck KGaA—will offer its three main IVF drugs, Gonal-f, Ovidrel, and Cetrotide, at steep discounts. These medications, which typically cost patients about $5,000 to $6,000 per IVF cycle, will be available on TrumpRx.gov, a new federal website launching in January 2026. For eligible patients using all three drugs, the savings could be as much as 84%, according to a company press release cited by CNN.
“We’re pleased to announce that, depending on the patient’s income, the cost of drugs for a standard IVF cycle of infertility will decrease somewhere between 42 and 79% for families,” a senior administration official told ABC News. Trump himself described the new prices as “very, very heavily reduced,” adding, “prices that you won’t even believe.” The administration estimates the average reduction for IVF drugs in the U.S. will be about 73%.
But the cost of IVF extends well beyond the price of medications. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reported in 2024 that a single IVF cycle can run between $15,000 and $20,000—and if donor eggs are needed, the price can soar past $30,000. With the average woman requiring 2.5 cycles to achieve a successful pregnancy, the total cost often exceeds $40,000. Trump acknowledged this reality, noting that “many women also need more than one round of treatment.”
The new agreement also includes a commitment from EMD Serono to expedite the U.S. approval process for Pergoveris, a fertility drug currently available in Europe but not yet in America. By working closely with the Food and Drug Administration, the company hopes to cut the typical 10- to 12-month review period to just one or two months. Trump said this would allow Pergoveris to “directly compete” with existing options, breaking what he described as a monopoly in the U.S. fertility drug market.
In addition to lower drug prices, the Trump administration is encouraging employers to offer fertility benefits—including IVF coverage—as elective add-ons to company insurance plans, much like dental or vision coverage. “I’m asking all employers to make these new fertility benefit options available to their employees immediately,” Trump said, as reported by The Washington Post. However, there is no requirement for employers to do so, nor is there a federal mandate for universal IVF coverage—falling short of Trump’s 2024 campaign promise that the government or insurers would pay for all IVF costs.
Still, administration officials see the move as a major expansion opportunity. With roughly 60% of women aged 30 to 44 getting health insurance through their employer, “this is the greatest possible expansion opportunity from a federal action probably ever,” one official told CNN. A Mercer survey cited by CNN found that in 2024, nearly half of large companies (those with 500 or more employees) covered IVF in their broadest health plans, more than double the figure from 2019. Smaller companies, however, remain far less likely to offer the benefit.
As part of the broader push to lower drug prices, Trump also referenced his “most favored nation” executive order, signed in May 2025, which aims to ensure U.S. patients pay no more than the lowest price charged in other developed countries. EMD Serono agreed to sell future drugs in the U.S. at these standards and to invest in American manufacturing and research to avoid tariffs threatened by the administration. Similar deals were recently struck with Pfizer and AstraZeneca, both of which will also offer discounted drugs on TrumpRx.gov.
The White House said that CVS Specialty Pharmacy and Express Scripts Freedom Fertility Pharmacy, which together distribute over 80% of the relevant fertility drugs, will “materially reduce their expenses associated with the handling of this drug, while still ensuring access to all families who wish to use it.”
During the same White House briefing, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. linked declining U.S. birth rates to endocrine disruptors—chemicals that interfere with hormones. “When my uncle was president, the fertility rate in this country was 3.5%. Today, it is 1.6%. The replacement rate, in other words, the amount of fertility that you need in order to keep your population even is 2.1%. We are below replacement, right now,” Kennedy said. He called the drop a “national security threat” and praised Trump’s efforts to address root causes through his “MAHA agenda” of reducing exposure to such chemicals.
Yet, as ABC News and other outlets noted, a broad body of research challenges Kennedy’s assertion that endocrine disruptors are the primary culprit. Studies published in Fertility and Sterility and Scientific Reports suggest that while these chemicals may impair fertility, the main drivers of declining birth rates are social and economic: delayed childbearing, high costs of raising children, lifestyle changes, and increased access to contraception. A recent Pew survey found that more than 36% of young adults unlikely to have children cite affordability as the main reason.
Some reproductive medicine specialists welcomed the drug discounts but urged the administration to go further. Dr. Serena Chen, director of advocacy at CCRM Fertility IRMS Reproductive Medicine, told CNN, “Fertility care, including IVF, is health care. I would like to hear a federal mandate for insurance coverage.” She was “super excited” about the discounts, but noted that other major drugmakers like Organon and Ferring were not included in the deal. Dr. David Sable, a former reproductive endocrinologist, warned that recent layoffs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could undermine the infrastructure needed to support expanded IVF access, saying, “We need innovation, we need automation, we need risk management.”
As the rollout of TrumpRx.gov approaches in early 2026, the administration’s efforts to make fertility care more affordable are drawing both praise and scrutiny. The fate of broader insurance coverage and the inclusion of other drugmakers remain open questions, but for many Americans dreaming of starting a family, the promise of lower IVF drug prices could mark a hopeful new chapter.
