By Maggie Fick
LONDON (Reuters) -AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot looked relaxed standing in the Oval Office on Friday as U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a medicine deal that will lower drug prices for millions of Americans.
The hard work had paid off, allowing Soriot to clinch the first agreement for a non-U.S. drugmaker and shield his Anglo-Swedish company from threatened steep tariffs on imports to the U.S. – the world’s largest pharmaceuticals market.
That moment at the White House was the culmination of public and private meetings between Soriot and Trump officials, stretching back to November last year when Trump won election, three sources close to the negotiations told Reuters. And it went down to the wire with a last-minute push from AstraZeneca to seal the agreement.
“You’ve kept me up at night and my team as well. But it’s been really worth it,” Soriot joked to Trump.
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The agreement will likely bolster the 66-year-old French-born Australian’s reputation as something of a Trump whisperer, even as many CEOs globally grapple with the president’s whipsaw tariff changes.
Trump argues Americans pay far too much – often three times more, studies show – for prescription medicines than in other wealthy nations and set a September 29 deadline for drugmakers to cut prices, using threats of tariffs up to 100% as leverage.
Soriot’s charm offensive started the week after Trump won the U.S. election. On November 12, AstraZeneca announced a $3.5 billion plan to expand manufacturing and research in the United States.
Soriot, who arrived in the U.S. early last week, most recently met Trump at a September 18 royal banquet dinner at Windsor Castle in Britain, the first source said.
Over the summer he met with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick at least three times in Britain and the United States, that source added.
All three sources asked not to be named as the talks were confidential.
Soriot also developed a close relationship with vocal Trump ally and Republican high-flier, Governor Glenn Youngkin of Virginia, all three sources said. That led to a rapidly-assembled deal for a $4.5 billion plant in the state, which took just over a month to go from initial talks to an agreement.
On Thursday, a day before the Oval Office signing, Soriot and Youngkin stood shoulder-to-shoulder, shovels in hand, to break ground at the site.
“Youngkin has a lot of ambition and his connections with the administration were clearly helpful,” a second source said. “The Virginia facility deal showed the two sides were on the same page.”
Donald Trump, AstraZeneca, Pascal Soriot, Oval Office, Glenn Youngkin
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