Weight-loss drug makers announce pricing agreement with Trump

United States President Donald Trump, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have unveiled a deal to slash the prices of popular GLP-1 weight‑loss drugs for the government’s Medicare and Medicaid programme, as well as for cash payers.

The deal, announced on Thursday, is aimed at increasing access to treatments through US Medicare for people aged 65 and above and the Medicaid programme for low-income people, which together provide healthcare coverage for nearly half of all Americans.

Recommended Stories

• list 1 of 4Afghanistan’s opium crop falls 20 percent as synthetic drugs surge
• list 2 of 4What has US Supreme Court said about Trump’s trade tariffs? Does it matter?
• list 3 of 4Could soaring global debt trigger the next financial crisis?
• list 4 of 4US judge approves DOJ decision to drop Boeing criminal case

US patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, and Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay elsewhere.

“It’s going to equalise the world,” Trump told reporters from the Oval Office, noting that Lilly and Novo would be providing their other medications to Medicaid at “most-favoured-nation” prices.

The event ended abruptly when an attendee in the Oval Office collapsed.

Starter doses of rival weight‑loss pills being developed by Lilly and Novo, if approved, will cost $149 per month for all Medicare and Medicaid enrollees and via the White House’s new direct-to-consumer site, TrumpRx, senior administration officials said.

For currently available injectable GLP-1s used for diabetes and other covered health issues, prices would fall to $245 per month for patients with Medicare or Medicaid, they said.

On TrumpRx, the average price of injectables and pills will start at or below $350 monthly and is expected to trend downwards to $245 within two years.

Lilly announced that the lowest dose of Zepbound will be available for $299 per month, with additional doses priced at $449 per month for cash-paying patients under the new deal.

In Medicare, patients’ co-pays will be capped at $50 a month, officials said.

Commercial health insurers would also be able to access prices estimated to be 25 percent lower than current cash prices, they said.

The government will also expand coverage for GLP-1s under the deal, officials said, to overweight patients with prediabetes or heart problems, obese patients with comorbidities and severely obese patients, accounting for 10 percent of Medicare patients.

Currently, Medicare does not typically cover the drugs for obesity. Coverage in Medicaid, which is run by each state and jointly financed with the federal government, varies.

The agreed prices will come into effect no later than January for cash payers, by mid-2026 for Medicare patients and on an ongoing basis for Medicaid enrollees, depending on when states sign up.

Administration officials said the companies would get relief from tariffs as part of the deal. Lilly said it would be exempted from tariffs for three years.

The officials also said Novo and Lilly will receive fast-track regulatory vouchers for some of their future drugs.

Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound are the only highly effective GLP-1 weight-loss drugs sold mainly in the US as weekly injections. List prices top $1,000 a month, though both offer cash buyers a $499 monthly supply.

Novo Nordisk has committed to an additional $10bn investment in the US, according to a White House fact sheet.

Lilly said the agreement will improve access to medications for nearly 40 million Americans covered by government insurance programmes, as well as millions more who pay out-of-pocket.

It said it would add its diabetes medications – Emgality, Trulicity, and Mounjaro – to its direct-to-consumer platform, offering them at 50 percent to 60 percent below their current list prices.

Wall Street reacts

Deutsche Bank analysts saw the deal as a potential catalyst for Lilly’s growth. It estimated that a $150 monthly cap could unlock access for up to 15 million Americans when applied to orforglipron, its experimental weight-loss pill that succeeded in a late-stage trial.

Deutsche Bank said increased uptake would come from the estimated 20 percent of obese adults who would prefer pills to needles. About 2.7 million Americans currently take Lilly’s injectable Zepbound, it said.

Lilly and Novo are racing to bring oral GLP-1 treatments to market. Novo’s once-daily oral Wegovy is under Food and Drug Administration review with a decision expected later this year, while Lilly’s orforglipron is set for regulatory submission by the end of the year and a potential launch in 2026.

BMO Capital analyst Evan Seigerman said Lilly’s dominance in the GLP-1 space continues to deepen, with physicians and patients increasingly favouring its drugs.

Pfizer and AstraZeneca previously signed new pricing agreements tied to the TrumpRx platform.

On Wall Street, Novo Nordisk stock was down 3.6 percent since the market opened. Eli Lilly was relatively flat, up by only 0.03 percent. Pfizer stock was up 1 percent, and AstraZeneca 3.4 percent as of 2pm in New York (19:00 GMT).