India, Dec. 21 -- U.S. President Donald Trump and nine major pharmaceutical companies on Friday announced deals that will slash the prices of their medicines for the government's Medicaid program and for cash payers, in his latest hid to align U.S. costs with those in other wealthy nations. Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences. Merck and Roche's U.S. unit Genentech have struck deals. Novartis, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi and GSK have also signed on.

"We were subsidizing the entire world. We're not doing it anymore. Trump said at a White House press conference, flanked by nine drugmaker executives. U.S. patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations...