President Donald Trump on Monday said he struck new drug pricing deals with nine drugmakers to voluntarily sell their medications for less, building on his push to link the nation’s pharmaceutical prices to cheaper ones abroad.

The drugmakers signing the new deals are Alcon, Astellas Pharma, BeOne Medicines, BridgeBio, CSL, Kyowa Kirin, Sun Pharma, Teva Pharmaceuticals and UCB, according to the White House. Shares of most of those companies closed relatively flat on Monday, while Teva and BeOne fell around 1%.

Under the new deals, the nine companies agreed to provide discounts on outpatient drugs to every state Medicaid program so that prices states pay align with what companies charge in foreign countries. The agreements impact drugs that treat several chronic and rare diseases, such as hemophilia, liver disease, skin conditions and certain forms of cancer.

The companies committed to invest at least $19.6 billion collectively in U.S. manufacturing in the near term, according to the White House.

Astellas, Sun Pharma, Teva and UCB also agreed to donate active pharmaceutical ingredients for key products to the federal government’s strategic reserve of those ingredients, which aims to reduce reliance on foreign supply and ensure the U.S. is prepared in the event of an emergency. For example, UCB will contribute 163 tons of levetiracetam, an anticonvulsant used to control and prevent certain types of seizures.

The new agreements bring the Trump administration’s total number of drug pricing deals to 26 companies, which the president said represents 90% of the domestic pharmaceutical market. He said the other 10% of the industry is “also coming in” and “have no choice.”

Over the past year, the Trump administration reached drug pricing deals with 17 other pharmaceutical companies, including Pfizer, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, as part of its “most favored nation” policy. Trump signed an executive order in May 2025 to revive that policy, calling for prices to be increased outside of the U.S. and to “end global freeloading.”

The deals add to the White House’s efforts to spotlight healthcare affordability ahead of the midterm elections. 

The “most favored nation” deals that have been signed with the Trump administration have already impacted the commercial strategies, bottom lines and manufacturing pipelines of major pharmaceutical companies. 

To insulate themselves from future tariff threats, drugmakers are spending billions of dollars to bring manufacturing capabilities back to the U.S. Companies are also drastically expanding direct-to-consumer channels for their products, including by offering their medicines on the president’s TrumpRx portal. Lower prices in the U.S. are weighing on bottom lines, with manufacturers like Novo Nordisk saying that it will take time for prescription volumes to offset the revenue dip. 

U.S. prescription drug prices on average are nearly three times higher than they are overseas, according to a 2024 study by Rand Corp. Prices for branded drugs were more than four times higher, the report found.

The trade association PhRMA, which represents many major pharma companies, has previously said that most-favored nation pricing isn’t the best way to lower drug costs for Americans and instead blamed pharmacy benefit managers for the price disparity.

The U.S. is the single most important market for many drugmakers, regardless of their home country. Despite being based across the Atlantic, European pharma companies are heavily exposed to the U.S. market, with half of the 10 largest companies on the continent generating a majority of their sales in the U.S.

Energy giant NextEra Energy has secured a federal loan of up to $1.9 billion from the Department of Energy to restart Iowa’s Duane Arnold Energy Center, marking a major milestone as the country works to meet soaring power demand driven in part by the AI boom.

The 615-megawatt facility in Linn County operated for 45 years before closing in 2020 as Iowa’s sole nuclear power plant. The project cleared a major state regulatory hurdle in June when the Iowa Utilities Commission issued a certificate authorizing construction and operation.

NextEra aims to bring the reactor back online by the first quarter of 2029, subject to final oversight and licensing approvals from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

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The 615-megawatt facility in Linn County operated for 45 years before closing in 2020. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo)

The nuclear restart is anchored by a 25-year power purchase agreement with Alphabet’s Google, which will buy electricity from the plant. Surging power demand, including from AI data centers and other high-tech computing infrastructure, is pressuring the nation’s electrical grid and prompting renewed interest in extending the lives of existing nuclear plants and bringing shuttered reactors back online.

A control panel is pictured Sept. 8, 2026, at the Duane Arnold Energy Center near Palo, Iowa. (Reuters)

The project is also expected to provide significant economic benefits for Iowa. An economic study estimates the restart will generate more than $9 billion in economic value for Iowa over 25 years; create thousands of construction and refurbishment jobs; support more than 400 permanent, high-paying operational positions; and generate approximately $75 million in tax revenue.

State leaders have backed the effort, with Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signing legislation to provide incentives for nuclear power development.

The nuclear restart is anchored by a 25-year power purchase agreement with Alphabet’s Google, which will buy electricity from the plant. (Rolf Vennenbernd/picture alliance via Getty Images)

NextEra Energy CEO John Ketchum said bringing new generation online to serve rising demand could help keep power affordable for existing customers while ensuring Iowa families and businesses are not asked to bear the costs of grid growth.

While multiple efforts are underway nationwide to reactivate retired reactors, no shuttered U.S. nuclear power plant has yet resumed operations.

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NextEra’s project joins other high-profile nuclear revival efforts across the country, including Constellation Energy’s plan to restart a reactor at Pennsylvania’s former Three Mile Island plant for Microsoft and Holtec International’s efforts to revive Michigan’s 800-megawatt Palisades facility.

President Trump will speak to the nation tonight from the GOP midterm convention at Dallas. To quote my friend Kellyanne Conway, the GOP has the money, the message, but they don’t have the right sales pitch. That’s Mr. Trump’s assignment tonight, and there’s no one who can make a sale the way he can.

We already got a preview that he’s on message, when he told reporters at the airport that “we’re heading over to Dallas. I think we’re going to have a tremendous crowd tonight. Sold out. Looks very big. It looks very exciting. And we’re going to, explain what we’ve done.” 

Mr. Trump added: “We’ve done things that have never been done in the first term or the second term, frankly, of a president. The economy is very strong. The investment in our country is the biggest in the history of any country, not just our country. We have factories being built all over the world right now. And it’s very exciting to see.”

I have said again and again, we’re in an economic boom. It should be the biggest story in this election. It may be the greatest story never told up until now, but I believe Mr. Trump will tell it. And when he does, it will have a powerful impact. Now here’s some more advice from Senator Ted Cruz yesterday: “I would say, objectively speaking, the last two years, with Donald Trump in the White House and a Republican House and Senate, we have won more conservative victories in these two years than any time since you and I have been alive.”

Mr. Cruz added that we have seen “the largest investment in border security in American history, over $100 billion, and illegal border crossings dropping 99 percent. The murder rate, down 20 percent nationwide. Crime in general. The number of deaths from drug overdoses, down twenty percent. You look at the biggest tax cut in American history, no tax on tips, no taxes on overtime, no tax of Social Security.”

The Texas senator concluded: “And then two provisions that were in that bill that I think are the most consequential. The biggest federal school choice program ever enacted, and the Trump accounts, and both of those I authored”

We’re a business show, so I’m going to focus on the economic story, which is the strongest manufacturing boom in many decades. From the Federal Reserve’s production index, computer and electronics year-over-year are rising by 10 percent. High tech and semiconductors are rising by 12 percent. Business equipment overall, up 7 percent. That’s CapEx.

Institute for Supply Management indexes for manufacturing are up eight straight months. Durable goods, the heart of manufacturing shipments, are up 11 percent year over year. Orders are up 13 percent. Construction is booming. And goods-producing jobs are booming, up almost 100,000 so far this year. Construction jobs are rising by double-digit percentage points every month recently.

Total wages are up more than 4 percent and beating inflation. We just had a huge jobs report and with revisions it was up over 220,000. Since Mr. Trump has been in office, private payrolls have increased by more than a million, while federal government payrolls have fallen by more than 300,000.

Mr. Trump’s tax cuts, and lighter regulation, and “drill, baby, drill” have restructured the economy back to free enterprise, and away from President Biden’s big-government socialism. It’s a huge change. Along the way, productivity and profits have boomed, stock markets have set records, the wealth of Americans is now more than $180 trillion. And by some measures, as many as 156 million Americans have shared in the stock market wealth creation.

Here’s what Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, taking a time out from his economic-strangulation Iran-war responsibilities, had to say about the economy at Southern Methodist University at Dallas yesterday: “I think of the working families tax cut also knows one big beautiful bill. It had great symmetry to it because on one side you had these very powerful business incentives. So full expensing of equipment, full expensing of factories, full expensing of farm structures.” 

Mr. Bessent added that “on the other side, the working Americans have been able to keep more of what they make. So no tax on tips, no tax on overtime.” Some “85 percent of our seniors are paying no tax on Social Security and then deductibility on interest on American made cars. So economic boom manufacturing reshoring which we are seeing.”

It’s a great rundown by Mr. Bessent, who’s a very busy fellow indeed. So, as I’ve said, to wrap-up, now it’s really been the greatest story never told up to now. Now’s the time for Mr. Trump to tell it. He can swing the midterm election. I believe this is possible, and I think he’s going to make a case that we do not need big-government socialism from the far-left crazies. We’ll stick with free enterprise and markets and yes, capitalism. And I’ve warned many, many times regarding Mr. Trump, never bet against him.

Writing a will can seem daunting and expensive. But there are ways to get one written for free or at a lower cost.

For example, every November, Will Aid, external works with solicitors who volunteer their time and waive their fee for writing a basic will.

Members of a trade union may also benefit from a free will writing service, according to Citizens Advice., external

For many young people, making a will may not seem necessary, particularly if they feel they have little to leave behind.

Sophia Maslin, founder of Morby, a website that allows people to create wills online, says the idea that you need to own a lot before making a will is one of the biggest misconceptions she comes across.

“People believe they don’t own enough. But actually, if you’ve got some sort of savings, investments, pensions, your social media accounts, if you’ve got pets, even funeral wishes, these are all things to think about,” she says.

For Erin, the idea of making a will first came up when her friend bought a home.

Then she began seeing Maslin talking about wills on TikTok. Maslin had shared the story of her cousin, who died young without a will, and how complicated things became for her family.

Using employees’ AI abilities as a measure of whether they should get a bonus, promoted – or even sacked – is fast becoming more common.

Accenture CEO Julie Sweet told the Rapid Response podcast in March: “Today, AI at Accenture is how we do work. So if you want to get promoted, you’ve got to do the things that we do in order to operate at Accenture.”

And big names like Disney, Meta, JP Morgan and KPMG have introduced “AI leaderboards” to track and rank employees’ usage of the array of LLMs and platforms at their disposal, according to media reports, external. Crypto trading platform Coinbase has already fired engineers who didn’t complete AI training, as requested by the chief executive, Brian Armstrong, external.

It demonstrates how eager business leaders are to see a return from their AI investments, especially when 94% of companies have yet to see significant value from AI, according to a report, external by consultants McKinsey.

Employees feel they have to get on board, thanks to the current state of the jobs market – in the UK, vacancies have hit a five-year low.

Meanwhile, 75% of the 1,881 UK jobseekers polled in July by recruiter Gi Group say they would not be put off applying to an organisation that had introduced AI proficiency into individual performance reviews. Around 22% said it would be off-putting.

“It’s like being in the sea and you see a giant wave coming. You can get out a surfboard and try and ride it as long as possible, or you can just let it take you under. But you can’t stop the wave,” says Trevithick.

But what’s going on at the large consultancy Pamela (her name has been changed to protect her identity) works for isn’t sitting right with her.

She’s a US-based senior executive who has observed that, while there isn’t a formal mandate for employees to use AI, it’s obviously determining who is rewarded, and who is left behind.

“The ground is shifting under us. You’ve got to demonstrate [AI] fluency and fluidity as one of your key achievements. It’s kind of quiet where nobody’s saying, ‘learn AI or else’. But let me tell you, in performance reviews, they reward who uses it well,” says Pamela.

That shift, she adds, means that AI capabilities are now counting for more than actual experience, which is creating a “two tier workforce”.

“You’ve got the same job title, same tenure, but different value based on whether someone treats AI as a threat or a tool – that gap widens really quickly once leadership notices it,” says Pamela.

“AI fluency beats credentials every day. Somebody that has 15, 20 years of experience and no AI fluency will be passed over for those that have, say, three years, but are fast with the tools.”

She adds: “If you’re not visibly using AI, you see slower promotion timelines. It’s harder to be seen, and it’s harder to fight being on that shortlist.”

Lenovo has launched Call Eva, a phone line that lets entrepreneurs in the UK and six other countries leave a voice message for the actress and business owner Eva Longoria, with a selection of the questions to be answered live on 16 September.

The initiative, announced by the technology company on 8 September, is the latest activation of its global Backing Every Business programme. Lenovo said callers could ask Longoria, its global ambassador, about business growth, leadership and entrepreneurship, and that selected callers might then be contacted and offered the chance to speak to her live.

Lenovo said the concept behind the line was that “every entrepreneur needs someone they can call”.

How the line works

Entrepreneurs in Brazil, France, India, Japan, Mexico, the UK and the US can leave a voice message, according to the company’s announcement. Callers in the UK, Brazil, France and Japan dial +800 TALK2EVA (+800 82552382), with separate numbers for the US, Mexico and India. Lenovo said standard call and data charges might apply.

Longoria will answer what Lenovo described as “the most burning questions” live on her Instagram account, @evalongoria, at about 9.30am Pacific time, which is 5.30pm in the UK, on 16 September.

Lenovo directed entrants to the Call Eva website for eligibility requirements and terms and conditions. The site also carries a form asking entrepreneurs for their contact details, country, date of birth, business name and how long they have been in business, along with a description of the advice they want from Longoria in up to 200 characters, for what it calls “a chance to talk shop with Eva”.

Lenovo said the questions submitted would help address issues “keeping entrepreneurs up at night”, from navigating growth and leadership to hiring, marketing, AI adoption and managing competing priorities. It added that Longoria’s commentary reflected her personal opinions and experience and did not constitute professional business, financial or legal advice.

Beyond her work as an actress, director and producer, Longoria is an entrepreneur and investor whose ventures span food, beverage, media and other consumer businesses, according to Lenovo. She is also the founder of the Eva Longoria Foundation, which works to expand educational and economic opportunities for Latinas.

“One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as an entrepreneur is that you don’t have to have all the answers yourself. Some of the best decisions start with asking someone you trust for insights, a fresh perspective or even just reassurance that you’re heading in the right direction,” Longoria said.

She added: “We’re giving entrepreneurs a place to bring the questions they’re really wrestling with, because chances are, another business owner has faced similar dilemmas. If something I’ve learned along the way can help someone better navigate a challenge, make a tough decision or take their next step with more confidence, that’s incredibly meaningful to me.”

Backing Every Business

Lenovo describes Backing Every Business as offering technology packages tailored to a company’s needs alongside practical advice, hands-on mentorship, training and a global network.

Call Eva follows the programme’s Twinning initiative, announced on 17 March, which connects entrepreneurs in different markets who are facing similar business challenges so they can exchange experiences, perspectives and practical advice. Lenovo said it had connected small business owners across Japan, Mexico, the UK and the US earlier in 2026. Longoria is also global ambassador for Twinning.

Other schemes aimed at UK founders include NatWest’s Accelerator, which the bank said in February it planned to expand to 50,000 entrepreneurs in 2026.

Emily Ketchen, senior vice-president and chief marketing officer for Lenovo’s Intelligent Devices Group and International Markets, said: “Technology can unlock enormous opportunities for small businesses, but technology alone doesn’t build a business. Entrepreneurs also need access to trusted advice, shared experiences and a community that understands the realities of building and growing a business.”

She added: “Backing Every Business brings those pieces together and Call Eva gives us a new avenue to extend that support while listening directly to entrepreneurs about the challenges they’re navigating. By understanding their questions, we can continue to find meaningful ways to help small businesses move forward and grow with confidence.”

Cherry Martin

Cherry is Associate Editor of Business Matters with responsibility for planning and writing future features, interviews and more in-depth pieces for what is now the UK’s largest print and online source of current business news.

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