Novo Nordisk agreed to lower the price for its obesity drug Wegovy in a deal with the Trump administration announced Thursday.
Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Dhiraj Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images
People who rely on Medicare for their health insurance will soon be able to get blockbuster obesity and Type 2 diabetes drugs with $50 monthly copays under two new deals the Trump administration announced Thursday.
President Trump and his team announced the deals with Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly, which makes Mounjaro and Zepbound, from the Oval Office.
The deals are part of a broader initiative the administration calls most-favored-nation drug pricing, which is an attempt to lower American drug prices, and get the same or lower prices as other developed countries.
“We believe these deals, within two years … based on our health improvements, we will be budget neutral,” said Dr. Mehmet Oz, who leads the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, during the press conference. While access to the drugs would increase, their use would lower spending on other health services. “These drugs will not cost us money,” Oz said. “The American taxpayers will be getting their money back.”
The companies pledged to offer their blockbuster obesity and Type 2 diabetes drugs to Medicare and Medicaid programs for $245 a month, with copays for Medicare beneficiaries set at $50 a month starting in April. State Medicaid programs will have to opt in separately.
The programs already cover the companies’ drugs approved by the Food and Drug Administration for Type 2 diabetes, but under the deals they will also be covered for some patients who are overweight or obese.
There are some restrictions, according to senior officials who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity before the White House announcement. The medicines will only be covered if patients have:
- a body mass index over 27 and established prediabetes or cardiovascular disease;
- a body mass index over 30 and uncontrolled hypertension, kidney disease or heart failure; or
- a body mass index over 35.
“This is not about losing weight,” a senior administration official said during the briefing call. “It is about making America healthier. This is about preventing a stroke. This is about preventing heart attacks and disease. About preventing end stage renal disease.”
“Reducing the cost and leveraging the scale of Medicare and Medicaid to boost access to game-changing weight loss drugs is a transformative step in the battle against chronic disease and obesity,” said Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, president of the American Medical Association.
Like previous deals with Pfizer and AstraZeneca, the agreements with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly include lower prices in Medicaid, a pledge to launch new drugs in the U.S. at prices on par with other developed countries and discounted drugs for patients paying for them without insurance, which will be available through TrumpRx.gov.
The deals with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly also include a promise to offer starting doses of their upcoming obesity pills — if they receive FDA approval — at $149 a month for people on Medicare, Medicaid and using TrumpRx. Eli Lilly said in a press release that it had also applied for a voucher with the FDA, which could speed its review and approval.
The current medicines, given by injection, will be available through TrumpRx without insurance at an average of $350 a month — down from around $500, which is what the companies offer patients buying directly today. Those prices will drop to $245 over the next 24 months, the officials said.
Specifically, Eli Lilly says it will knock $50 dollars off its existing direct-to-consumer price for Zepbound, making it $299 a month for the starting dose and $449 for higher doses.
“I think the manufacturers were open to this partly for political reasons, but also it was just going to expand their patient population dramatically,” said Geoffrey Joyce, a health economist and director of health policy at the USC Schaeffer Center.
Also, in return for these commitments, the Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk will get a three-year exemption from certain tariffs.
The White House unveiled its plan for TrumpRx and the first deal with Pfizer on Sept. 30. It also announced a deal with AstraZeneca on Oct. 10, and with EMD Serono on Oct. 16, though that deal only included EMD Serono’s fertility drugs, and not its cancer or multiple sclerosis drugs.
All the deals follow an executive order in May, and letters sent to 17 pharmaceutical companies over the summer to push them to lower prices voluntarily.
The TrumpRx website is expected to launch sometime in 2026, and would take consumers to pharmaceutical companies’ direct-to-consumer websites to fulfill orders.
