Drug manufacturers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have reached a deal with the Trump administration to drop prices on wildly popular obesity drugs for Medicare, Medicaid and private-pay Americans, the president announced Thursday.
The deal cut with the two companies will reduce consumer cost of Zepbound and Wegovy, as well as pill forms of two other GLP-1 obesity drugs. The New York Times reported that obesity drugs in pill form are expected to win regulatory approval in coming months.
“The lowest price, of $150 a month, will be available only for the lowest doses of the pill form of the drugs. When those drugs reach the market, Medicare and Medicaid will pay that price, as will Americans using their own money to buy the pills directly from manufacturers,” the Times reported.
The Trump administration said coverage of the injectable forms of Wegovy and Zepbound would also be more available for those on the two government-sponsored health insurance programs and will decrease what those programs pay. “Those measures are likely to expand access but still will stop far short of covering all the millions of people with obesity under those federal programs,” the Times article said.
This is the latest deal to lower drug prices by the administration, which is calling a private-public partnership TrumpRx. The prediction is the injectable forms will soon be purchasable directly from the manufacturers for roughly $350 a month, depending on the drug strength, according to ABC News.
“The price is set to scale down to $250 over the next two years for people paying completely out of pocket with no insurance,” per ABC.
The deal was reportedly reached in exchange for exempting the two drug companies from high tariffs. In return, they also agreed to expand their manufacturing within the U.S.
Novo Nordisk already offers the obesity drug Wegovy directly through its website for $499 a month. Eli Lilly charges $349 for its lowest dose and $499 for higher dose Zepbound on its website.