The US White House and nine major pharmaceutical companies on Dec 19 announced deals that will slash the prices of their medicines for the government's Medicaid program and for cash payers, in his latest bid to align US costs with those in other wealthy nations.br br The companies are Bristol Myers Squibb, Gilead Sciences, Merck, Roche's US unit Genentech, Novartis, Amgen, Boehringer Ingelheim, Sanofi and GSK.