20 February 2025

$300M in Medication at Risk of Expiration Due to Trump’s Foreign Aid Freeze, Senator Claims

In mid-February 2025, a photograph circulating on social media purportedly showed $300 million worth of medication sitting idle in a warehouse, nearing expiration due to U.S. President Donald Trump's freeze on foreign aid spending.

Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) shared the image on X (archived) on Feb. 12, stating that the medications were intended to prevent blindness from a treatable tropical disease but were instead "wasting away in an East African warehouse" due to Trump’s policy. The claim also spread across Threads and Facebook (archived). Another X user who reposted the image described it as an example of vital medicine stranded in warehouses worldwide because of the aid suspension.

On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump issued an executive order imposing a 90-day freeze on U.S. foreign aid programs and significantly cutting back the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the primary federal agency responsible for distributing aid. The move placed all directly hired USAID employees on leave and recalled thousands of personnel working overseas.

However, on Jan. 29, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a waiver exempting certain lifesaving humanitarian programs from the freeze, allowing them to continue operating.

A spokesperson from Coons' office clarified via email that the medications in the photograph were part of USAID’s Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) program, which was not included in Rubio’s waiver. Coons, who co-chairs the Senate Caucus on Malaria and NTDs, argued that without an exemption, these medicines could go to waste.

According to the spokesperson, an anonymous individual affiliated with the NTD program took the image on Feb. 6 in a Tanzanian warehouse. Most of the visible boxes reportedly contained the antibiotic Zithromax, donated by pharmaceutical company Pfizer. The spokesperson warned that if the NTD program remained suspended, the medications could expire without reaching those in need.

Details regarding the exact quantity of Zithromax in the warehouse or its cost per dose were not provided.

Snopes reached out to Pfizer for comment and will update this report upon receiving a response.

On Feb. 13, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., issued a temporary suspension of Trump’s foreign aid freeze. The ruling mandated that the administration notify all organizations with existing federal contracts about the temporary relief and required an update on compliance by Feb. 18. However, uncertainty remains regarding the resumption of funding.

Previously, we reported on the series of decisions that briefly halted the distribution of lifesaving HIV medication.