The Trump administration has struck a deal with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to offer versions of their breakthrough weight-loss medications at steep discounts for certain Medicare and Medicaid patients, President Donald Trump announced at the White House on Thursday.
The prices for GLP-1 drugs would also be lower for Americans who use cash to buy them through a new government website that is expected to direct people to drugmaker direct-to-consumer programs.
All told, the latest drug pricing deal between the Trump administration and drugmakers is poised to expand coverage and lower the price of the medications for millions of Americans.. A senior administration official granted anonymity to discuss the deal said about 10 percent of the Medicare population will be eligible for expanded access.
The specific prices Americans will pay, and when those price changes will kick in, will vary based on where people get their prescriptions — Medicare, Medicaid, or through a direct-to-consumer program.
For Medicare — and Medicaid, if states opt in — drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound will be $245 a month. For Medicare, the copay will be $50.
For oral doses of the drugs, if FDA approves them, the price could be as low as $149 through TrumpRx.govfor an initial dose for new patients. Novo Nordisk asked the FDA to approve an oral version of Wegovy in May, and Eli Lilly plans to submit an application for its weight-loss pill candidate to the agency by the end of the year.
The impact on people with private insurance, which is a majority of Americans, is less clear. A senior administration official said both companies have committed to lower those costs as well.
The weight-loss drugs made by Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, which have been greatly in demand since Wegovy was approved for weight loss in 2021, are used for a variety of conditions including helping manage blood glucose levels in people with type 2 diabetes, reducing the risk of major cardiovascular events and helping patients manage their weight.
A KFF Health Tracking Poll from May 2024 found that 12 percent of adults have reported taking a GLP-1 medication.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been critical of the weight-loss medications, said the deal will help push down costs related to health conditions such as diabetes and cardiac disease.
“If we want to solve the chronic disease crisis, we have to tackle obesity,” Kennedy said.
In exchange for lower prices across government programs and TrumpRx.gov, the drugmakers will receive “certainty around tariff issues,” according to a senior administration official granted anonymity to discuss the announcement. They did not provide specific details on the tariff impacts — but other drugmakers making deals with the Trump administration investing in domestic manufacturing have gotten exemptions from tariffs that stem from investigations into the national security impacts of the pharmaceutical supply chain.
In addition, Trump said, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have agreed to provide all of their other medications to Medicaid at most favored nations prices, although details were not provided.
The two drugmakers will also offer most favored nation pricing for new medicines they bring to market under the deal.The FDA is also expected to grant the manufacturers national priority review vouchers to speed review of new weight-loss medications, another senior administration official said.
For TrumpRx.gov, which is expected to launch in the coming months, the administration estimated the average direct-to-consumer price of injectables and orals would be around $350 and trend down to $245 over two years.
Trump administration officials said on Thursday the companies will also be required to provide tools to encourage patients taking the drugs to make lifestyle choices such as eating healthy food or increasing physical activity.
“We’re in a war against obesity,” a senior administration official said. “We do not believe that GLP 1s or drugs alone are somehow some silver bullet to make the country healthy again, but they are an important jumpstart, while we also focus on root causes.”
Medicare is currently restricted by law from covering medications solely for weight loss, however there have been efforts by lawmakers in Congress to change that. One of the senior administration officials said the new approach will allow coverage of the drugs for anyone with obesity who is also at high metabolic risk or cardiovascular risk — not the full extent of health issues the drugs are approved for, but an expansion from what Medicare is currently covering.
The criteria “is a little bit more constrained,” the official said. “This is not about losing weight, it is about making America healthy again. This is about preventing strokes, it’s about preventing heart attacks, and this is about preventing end stage renal disease.”
The Trump administration initially walked back a Biden-era attempt to broaden Medicare coverage of weight loss drugs, which Kennedy has been critical of. Senior administration officials called Thursday’s announcement a “better deal” because of the companies’ voluntary price drops, in exchange for expanded patient eligibility.
It’s also a politically popular move to increase access and decrease costs for some of the most rapidly sought-after drugs in the U.S.
Around six in ten adults are in favor of Medicare coverage of the drugs, a recent KFF poll found, including more than half of Democrats, independents and Republicans.
Under former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare has also been negotiating a separate avenue to lower the price of Novo Nordisk’s weight loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy, which are part of the latest round of price talks. The negotiated price — known as the maximum fair price — is expected to be unveiled before the end of the month, and will be put into effect starting in 2027. It is not clear how that price will differ from the Trump-driven deal unveiled Thursday.
