Public Citizen Sues Trump Administration for Failing to Make Public Its Secret Deals with Pfizer and Eli Lilly
WASHINGTON, D.C. —- Today, Public Citizen filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for failing to respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for the drug-pricing agreements with pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Eli Lilly.
In late September 2025, Prizer, one of the world’s largest prescription drug companies, announced a deal with the administration, calling it “a win for American leadership, and a win for Pfizer.” But stated that the specific terms were “confidential.” Making the agreement public would allow Americans to understand the administration’s approach to prescription drug pricing and to see how the deal will impact drug costs for patients across the country.
Eli Lilly later announced a deal with the Trump administration. The company’s CEO enjoys a friendly relationship with Donald Trump, and Lilly has received three vouchers from the FDA to skip the line and get priority review of a new weight loss pill. 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.
To learn about these deals and how they will affect patients, on October 21, 2025, Public Citizen submitted a FOIA request to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and another to the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) regarding the agreement with Pfizer. On November 9, 2025 Public Citizen submitted a FOIA request to both HHS and DOC regarding the agreement with Eli Lilly. Neither agency has produced the requested information.
“We are suing the Trump administration to learn exactly what it has negotiated with Big Pharma,” said Peter Maybarduk, Public Citizen Access to Medicines director.
“Trump and RFK Jr. pledged ‘radical transparency.’ Instead they’ve given us secret deals with drugmakers. The secrecy makes it impossible to determine these deals’ effectiveness in lowering some drug prices. Prescription drug corporations are experts at gaming pricing rules. We need the texts so that we can understand how the deals will really affect Americans. The administration has not responded to our Freedom of Information Act requests. So today, we sued, asking the court to order the administration to make the deal texts public.”
“The Trump administration’s failure to make these deals public reflects disdain for the transparency and accountability the American people deserve from their government,” said Zachary Shelley, the Public Citizen attorney serving as lead counsel on the lawsuit.