Popular GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic will get cheaper in exchange for partial Medicare coverage, opening up new markets for Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk
GettyImages/Paul Biris
The Trump administration announced Thursday that it has reached deals with Eli Lilly $LLY and Novo Nordisk to lower the prices of some of their popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs in exchange for partial Medicare coverage, which opens up new markets for both companies.
Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Mounjaro, currently sell for a list price of about $1,000 per month before rebates and discounts, which is as much as three times higher than the price tag in other developed nations. Next year, the White House said in a statement, the drugs will sell on the upcoming direct-to-consumer portal, TrumpRx, for about $350 — a starting price already accessible through the drugmakers' direct pay websites today. The prices of the drugs through TrumpRx will fall over the next two years to $245, multiple outlets reported.
A Trump administration official reportedly clarified that around 10% of Medicare beneficiaries will gain expanded access to the drugs through a mid-2026 pilot program. The White House says the drugs will go for $245 through Medicare, and state Medicaid programs can opt into covering them at that price. "Medicare beneficiaries will pay a co-pay of just $50 per month," the White House said.
Upcoming weight loss pills "will be priced at $150 per month through TrumpRx," it added.
The news conference in the Oval Office on Thursday afternoon abruptly ended when Novo Nordisk executive Gordon Findlay reportedly collapsed.
Shares of Lilly were up by nearly 1% as of around 12:45 p.m. ET, while Novo’s shares were down by about 2%. In May, Morgan Stanley $MS Research estimated that the global market for obesity drugs would reach $150 billion in 2035, from about $15 billion last year.
Medicare, the federal insurance program for people age 65 and older, already covers GLP-1 drugs if prescribed for diabetes or heart disease, but not for obesity. Some 66 million people are enrolled in Medicare, and in 2024 the Congressional Budget Office estimated that approximately 12.5 million Medicare enrollees would be eligible for the weight loss medicines if they were available for obesity treatment.
The Medicare component of the deal announced Thursday, however, will apparently not apply to all people who qualify as obese, defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above. Instead, Medicare and Medicaid will extend coverage to patients with obesity who are at high metabolic or cardiovascular risk; people with a BMI greater than 27 who are also pre-diabetic or have cardiovascular disease; those with a BMI over 30 and also have uncontrolled hypertension, advanced kidney disease, or heart failure; or those with a BMI greater than 35. Many of these patients already meet current Medicare coverage conditions.
The Biden administration had already issued a new rule expanding Medicare and Medicaid coverage to obesity drugs last January, but the Trump administration halted those plans in April, saying they would be too costly.
In July, the Trump administration sent letters to 17 major drug manufacturers, including Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, demanding that they bring down the prices of prescription drugs in the U.S. to match the lowest price offered in other developed nations — known as the most-favored-nation price.
Pfizer $PFE and Astra-Zeneca recently reached agreements to lower the prices of their prescription drugs in exchange for tariff relief.
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