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The Trump administration’s deal on weight loss drugs might have been made possible in part by Biden’s Medicare drug price negotiation program, three experts said. Trump’s deal will offer lower prices for weight loss drugs to Medicare and Medicaid users, along with patients paying out of pocket. Many of the program’s details were not included in the White House announcement, and big questions remain. Advertisement At no point on Thursday did anyone from the administration mention Medicare drug price negotiations, a key part of the Inflation Reduction Act which allows federal officials to negotiate the price of certain drugs. Trump has ridiculed the program, and no Republicans voted for the IRA when it passed in 2022. But that doesn’t mean the IRA program didn’t play a role, according to Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
