Astrazeneca CEO’s bizarre expression at Trump’s presser viral; ‘trying to control’ – Watch

President Donald Trump on Friday announced that AstraZeneca has agreed to lower the cost of prescription drugs for Medicaid in exchange for avoiding steep tariffs. The company’s CEO, Pascal Soriot, who was also present at the press conference, hailed the move, saying the president and his officials ‘really kept me up at night’.

President Donald Trump shakes hands with AstraZeneca CEO Pascal Soriot in the Oval Office (AP)

However, soon a video of Soriot’s immediate reaction to Trump’s announcement went viral on social media. “Pascal Soriot, the CEO $AZN (the guy to his right), is straight up trying to hold himself back from laughing while hearing the numbers,” one person noted on X, platform formerly known as Twitter. They also attached a clip from the presser.

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“For many years, Americans have paid the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, by far,” Trump said. He further added that the new deal may cut prices to ‘the lowest price anywhere in the world. That’s what we get’.

This comes days after Pfizer came to a similar agreement. Trump had signed an executive order back in May, setting a deadline for drugmakers to electively lower prices or face new limits on what the government will pay.

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“The tariffs were a big reason he came here,” Trump said of Soriot.

AstraZeneca announced Thursday that it would spend $4.5 billion on a new manufacturing plant near Charlottesville, Virginia, and its Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, spoke during Friday’s Oval Office announcement to cheer groundbreaking on the new facility.

The drugmaker said that project was the centerpiece of $50 billion in investments the company plans to make in the US by 2030. AstraZeneca said it plans to reach $80 billion in total revenue by then, half of which will be generated in the United States.

Trump predicted the investment’s could lead to 3,600 jobs domestically ‘just to begin with’.

(With inputs from the Associated Press)