Copyright Anchorage Daily News
The White House is expected to announce a deal this week with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk that would lower the price of their popular obesity drugs to $149 per month in some cases, according to four people familiar with the agreement who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preview the deal. The drugs would also be covered for some Medicare beneficiaries, potentially expanding access to the medication for millions of Americans, the people said. Medicare can cover Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy to treat diabetes and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound for sleep apnea, but the coverage does not extend to weight loss. An announcement could come as soon as Thursday, with President Donald Trump expected to personally tout the deal as part of his ongoing efforts to lower drug prices, one of the people said. The deal is seen as one of the most significant in the administration’s current drug-pricing push, given the potential effect on public health and spending on health care, two of the people said. “Discussion about deals that have not been officially announced by the Administration should be regarded as speculation,” White House spokesman Kush Desai said in a statement about the plans, which were first reported by Endpoints News. Spokespeople for Lilly and Novo Nordisk confirmed that the companies were engaged in discussions with the administration but did not answer questions about the plans. Patients often spend hundreds of dollars per month or more on the drugs, which are not always covered by insurance plans. Wegovy carries a list price of about $1,350 for a month’s supply, although discounts the price to $499 for patients who pay cash. The expected announcement is part of the White House’s push to secure “Most Favored Nation” pricing deals with pharmaceutical manufacturers, an effort to link U.S. drug prices to lower costs abroad. Trump signed an executive order in May that laid out the initiative, and administration officials have been negotiating with pharmaceutical companies in a bid to get them to voluntarily lower their prices. Several companies, including Pfizer and AstraZeneca, have already struck deals with the White House, with some pharmaceutical executives concluding that it would be better to compromise with the administration rather than gird for an extended fight. The obesity-drug deal is tied to a pilot program being developed by Medicare’s innovation center, which would cap the cost of the drugs for some Medicare beneficiaries, two of the people said. That pilot program is not yet finalized but expected to be announced this week. The Trump administration has used Medicare’s innovation center, which designs payment pilots and can implement them without congressional approval, to pressure the drug industry into voluntarily lowering prices. Lilly also has said that it plans to submit orforglipron, an obesity drug that it is developing, to a new Trump administration program intended to fast-track drug approvals. Trump officials have said that companies that move to lower their prices will receive priority vouchers to expedite Food and Drug Administration reviews when applying for federal approval of future drugs, among other incentives. Craig Garthwaite, director of health care at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, said that the impact of the new deal will depend on which products will be subjected to price cuts, details that were not immediately available Tuesday. He also noted that Trump officials are expected to soon announce the new prices that they have negotiated for several Novo Nordisk GLP-1 drugs under the Inflation Reduction Act, an effort that predates Trump’s pricing push and was launched by the Biden administration. “Given Medicare won’t cover these products for obesity now, if Novo and Lilly can trade a small discount for access to that market, it might actually increase their profits,” Garthwaite said. Trump previewed the deal for obesity drugs in remarks last month when he discussed his administration’s ongoing efforts to lower the cost of GLP-1 drugs, which work by mimicking hormones that are produced to regulate hunger and blood sugar. Studies have found that the drugs have helped with weight loss, and prevent diabetes and other harmful conditions. “Instead of $1,300, you’ll be paying about $150,” he told reporters on Oct. 16, following an announcement on efforts to lower the cost of in vitro fertilization medication. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, quickly interjected that negotiations on GLP-1 drugs were not yet complete. “The president will be happy with the result and, until he is, we’re not going to close those negotiations,” Oz told reporters, declining to offer a timeline. The high cost of GLP-1 drugs has drawn bipartisan attention, with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) holding a Senate hearing last year with Novo Nordisk’s CEO and urging the company to cut its prices. The Biden administration last year also proposed expanding coverage of GLP-1 drugs through Medicare and Medicaid before the Trump administration rejected the plan. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has previously derided GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic, saying last year that Novo Nordisk was “counting on selling it to Americans because we’re so stupid and so addicted to drugs.” He has since moderated his stance. “Ideally, over the long-term, we’d like to see that those drugs (are) available for people after they try other interventions,” Kennedy told CBS News in April. “If they don’t work, then you would be entitled to the drug.” Trump, meanwhile, has referred to the drugs as “the fat pill” or “fat killer,” although he has questioned their efficacy. “I don’t know if it works or not,” Trump said in remarks in September, riffing for several minutes on the obesity drugs and his broader drug-pricing push. “It didn’t work for a friend of mine.” ---
