What began as a series of demand letters in July 2025 has evolved into something significantly more consequential. By February 2026, sixteen of the seventeen largest pharmaceutical manufacturers have signed Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) pricing agreements with the Trump administration, which commit them to Medicaid price parity, MFN pricing on new product launches, and participation in TrumpRx.gov in exchange for three-year tariff immunity and improved regulatory positioning. But as those voluntary deals settle, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has moved to make MFN pricing mandatory for Medicare through two new models: GLOBE (Medicare Part B) and GUARD (Medicare Part D), both published in the Federal Register on December 23, 2025, with a public comment period that closed on February 23, 2026.
2026 Life Sciences Industry Outlook: Regulatory Environment
Welcome to Part 5 of our 2026 Life Sciences Industry Outlook series. Today, we are wrapping up the week with a review of the regulatory environment for life sciences companies in 2025 and our expectations for what 2026 could bring.
In 2025, life sciences companies faced a fast-moving regulatory environment shaped by the Trump administration’s priorities, including deregulation, the use of policy levers to encourage domestic manufacturing and development, and efforts to reduce healthcare costs for American consumers. We expect this unpredictable atmosphere to continue into 2026. In particular, we anticipate regulatory and enforcement developments in FDA regulation, drug pricing and reimbursement, government contracts, tariffs, and antitrust oversight, although specific outcomes and impacts remain difficult to predict.
Trump Administration Revives Possibility of MFN Drug Pricing: Key Implications for the Life Sciences Industry
On May 12, 2025, President Trump signed an Executive Order (“EO” or “Order”) “Delivering Most-Favored-Nation Prescription Drug Pricing to American Patients” aimed at significantly reducing U.S. prescription drug prices by aligning them with the lowest prices paid by other developed nations. According to the EO, drug manufacturers “deeply discount their products to access foreign markets and subsidize that decrease through enormously high prices in the United States.” Seeking to rectify this “egregious imbalance,” the EO announced the following policy: “Americans must therefore have access to the most-favored-nation price for these products… [and] should drug manufacturers fail to offer American consumers the most-favored-nation lowest price, [the] Administration will take additional aggressive action.”
Introducing Biotech Briefings
Dear friends and colleagues,
We are excited to introduce Biotech Briefings, providing Gibson Dunn’s commentary and perspectives on the legal, business, and regulatory issues shaping the life sciences industry.
From groundbreaking developments in biopharma, medical devices, and diagnostics to the evolving landscape of IP, FDA and SEC regulation, Biotech Briefings delivers timely insights for companies, investors, and industry stakeholders.
Stay tuned for expert analysis on:
- Key FDA, FTC & SEC developments
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- Market dynamics shaping investment & innovation
We invite you to follow along for actionable insights at the crossroads of law, business, and science.
The Gibson Dunn Life Sciences Team
False Claims Act Risks for Cyber Device Manufacturers Arising under New Requirements Subject to FDA Enforcement Beginning October 1, 2023
The False Claims Act (FCA) is one of the government’s chief tools to address false claims involving government funds, imposing liability on “any person who… knowingly presents, or causes to be presented, a false or fraudulent claim for payment” to the federal government or who “knowingly makes, uses, or causes to be made or used, a false record or statement material to a false or fraudulent claim.”[1] Through its qui tam provisions, the FCA also allows private citizens to file suit on behalf of the government for statutory violations.[2]
FDA Publishes Proposed Rule Asserting Medical-Device Jurisdiction over Laboratory-Developed Tests
On September 29, 2023, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released its highly anticipated proposed rule on laboratory-developed tests (LDTs) (“LDT Proposed Rule”), which was officially published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, October 3, 2023.[1] In the LDT Proposed Rule, FDA announced plans to formally classify LDTs as medical devices under its regulations, subjecting these tests to extensive premarket review and postmarket compliance requirements. If finalized, the LDT Proposed Rule would result in a significant impact to the growing laboratory testing industry.
FDA Draft Guidance Sheds Light on Agency’s Evaluation of Prescription Drug Use-Related Software
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently published a draft guidance document proposing to regulate end-user output of prescription drug use-related software (PDURS) as labeling.[1] The draft guidance sets forth review pathways that could benefit prescription drug application sponsors, including by allowing sponsors to incorporate information about PDURS in the FDA-approved labeling and to seek premarket review for certain PDURS functions that meet the definition of a medical device. But by proposing to regulate PDURS-related information as labeling, the draft guidance poses potential enforcement risks for sponsors under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA), the False Claims Act (FCA), and other laws, including through possible off-label promotion claims. Interested parties should consider submitting comments to FDA on the draft guidance. FDA has invited comments through December 18, 2023.