Trump, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk unveil deals to cut obesity drug prices

President Donald Trump announced the agreements on Thursday Eli Lilly And Novo Nordisk Lowering the prices of some obesity drugs, including upcoming drugs, in a groundbreaking effort to expand access to expensive blockbuster treatments.

The agreements will lower the prices of so-called GLP-1 drugs for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries in 2026 and make the treatments available directly to consumers at a discount on a website called TrumpRx.gov that the Trump administration announced in January.

This means Medicare will start covering obesity medications for some patients for the first time starting in mid-2026; This long-awaited move could expand the market for drugs and encourage more private insurers to cover them. Some Medicare patients will pay a co-pay of $50 per month for all approved uses of injectable and oral GLP-1 drugs, including treating diabetes and obesity.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk’s approval-pending obesity pills will have a starting dose of $145 a month Everyone gets them through Medicare, Medicaid or TrumpRx, a senior administration official who declined to give his name told reporters during a briefing on Thursday. Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, an oral version of its obesity injection, could hit the market by the end of the year, while Eli Lilly’s pill, or forglipron, could hit the market next year.

Starting doses of existing injections, such as Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound, will be $350 a month on TrumpRX, but “will drop” to $245 a month over a two-year period, another administration official said during the briefing.

The deals are among the most politically significant announcements to date in the Trump administration’s effort to rein in high drug costs in the United States by tying them to rock-bottom prices abroad. As part of the president’s “most favored nation” policy, he announced agreements with the following countries: Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Merck Serono will sell certain drugs directly to patients at a discount in exchange for exemptions from planned drug tariffs.

The list prices of current obesity medications (about $1,000 to $1,350 per month before insurance) pose a major barrier for patients; many of these patients will benefit from their ability to promote weight loss and alleviate other related health complications such as cardiovascular risks and sleep apnea. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk already have programs to sell weight-loss drugs at a discount directly to consumers who pay cash, but the new deals appear to take efforts to increase access one step further.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly agreed to extend lower government prices for GLP-1 drugs ($245 per month for all other non-starter doses) to all 50 Medicaid programs for all covered uses. States will have to choose these prices, which means some may not.

But Medicare coverage may have a larger impact on who gets drugs because the program covers about 66 million people and is the primary source of insurance for people 65 and older. The new obesity drug coverage will be activated through a pilot program designed to cover the majority of beneficiaries covered by Medicare Part D with prescription drug plans.

Another senior administration official said about 10% of Medicare beneficiaries would be eligible to receive GLP-1 for obesity, cardiovascular and metabolic benefits. Eligible patients will be divided into three groups. The first of these includes people who are overweight, have a body mass index over 27, have prediabetes or established cardiovascular disease.

The second group is people with obesity (BMI over 30) and uncontrolled hypertension, kidney disease or heart failure. The third group is people with severe obesity or a BMI over 35.

GLP-1s for weight loss are approved for a much broader population: people who have obesity or are overweight with a related condition. “We have worked hard to strike a balance between restricting access for patients who would benefit clinically and broad access that ensures we capture patients who would benefit clinically,” the administration official said.

As part of the deals, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk made commitments similar to those made by other drugmakers as part of Trump’s top-favored nation deals. The companies will guarantee most-preferred-country pricing on all new drugs they bring to market, offer that pricing to each state’s Medicaid program, offer at least U.S. net prices or most-preferred-country pricing for nearly all essential care drugs on TrumpRx, and share savings from foreign drug price increases on existing products, a senior administration official said.

Also Thursday, Eli Lilly said it would drop prices by $50 on its direct-to-consumer platform LillyDirect, which offers Zepbound at a discount to patients who pay with cash. The multi-dose Zepbound pen will be available for $299 per month for the lowest dose, with additional doses costing up to $449 per month.

Once approved, Eli Lilly’s pill will be available at the lowest dose, starting at $149 per month.

In a statement Thursday, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks said the deal is “an important moment in U.S. health policy and a defining turning point for Lilly” that is focused on “improving outcomes, strengthening the U.S. healthcare system, and contributing to the health of our nation for generations to come.”

Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar said in a separate statement that “today’s announcement will make semaglutide medicines available to more American patients at a lower cost.” Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic.

This isn’t the first time the government has aired Medicare’s coverage of obesity medications. Former President Joe Biden proposed a rule that would allow the program to cover these treatments at the end of his term, but the Trump administration in April refused to finalize the measure.

Biden’s proposal would expand access for about 3.4 million Medicare beneficiaries. However, it was controversial at the time because the cost to taxpayers was so high. 35 billion dollars A congressional analysis for nine years found.

But some health experts argue that covering medications could eliminate the downstream costs of treating obesity-related conditions.

Semaglutide is included in the next round of Medicare drug price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act that Biden signs into law in 2022. Trump is expected to announce the new prices of the 15 drugs selected for these negotiations by November 30.

Tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and the diabetes injection Mounjaro, likely won’t be eligible for these negotiations until the end of the decade.