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U.S. President Donald Trump attends an occasion to make an announcement from the Oval Workplace on the White Home in Washington, D.C., U.S. Nov. 6, 2025.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
President Donald Trump on Thursday introduced offers with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to slash the costs of a few of their weight problems medication, together with upcoming capsules, in a landmark effort to develop entry to the pricey blockbuster remedies.
The agreements will lower costs of so-called GLP-1 medication for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries in 2026 and provide the remedies on to shoppers at a reduction on a web site the Trump administration is launching in January referred to as TrumpRx.gov.
Which means Medicare will begin protecting weight problems medication for some sufferers for the primary time beginning mid-2026, a long-awaited transfer that might broaden the marketplace for the medicines and spur extra personal insurers to cowl them. Sure Medicare sufferers pays a copay of $50 per thirty days for all authorized makes use of of injectable and oral GLP-1 medication, together with diabetes and weight problems remedy.
Beginning doses of upcoming weight problems capsules from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, pending approvals, can be $145 per thirty days for everybody getting them by means of Medicare, Medicaid or TrumpRx, a senior administration official who declined to be named instructed reporters throughout a briefing Thursday. Novo Nordisk’s oral model of its weight problems injection Wegovy might enter the market year-end, whereas Eli Lilly’s capsule orforglipron might launch subsequent yr.
Beginning doses of present injections like Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound can be $350 per thirty days on TrumpRX, however will “development down” to $245 per thirty days over a two-year interval, one other senior administration official mentioned throughout the briefing.
The offers are among the many most politically vital bulletins up to now within the Trump administration’s push to rein in excessive U.S. drug prices by tying them to the bottom costs overseas. As a part of the president’s “most favored nation” coverage, he has introduced offers with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and EMD Serono to promote sure medication on to sufferers at a reduction, in alternate for exemptions from deliberate pharmaceutical tariffs.
The record costs of present weight problems medication – roughly $1,000 to $1,350 per thirty days earlier than insurance coverage – are an enormous barrier for sufferers, a lot of whom may benefit from their potential to advertise weight reduction and ease different associated well being problems equivalent to cardiovascular dangers and sleep apnea. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have already got applications to promote their weight reduction medication at a reduction on to cash-paying shoppers, however the brand new agreements seem to take these efforts to spice up entry a step additional.
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have agreed to chop the value Medicare pays for GLP-1s it already covers for diabetes and different indications, together with these medication for weight problems, to $245 per thirty days. The businesses agreed to increase decrease authorities pricing for his or her GLP-1 medication – $245 per thirty days throughout all different non-starting doses – to all 50 Medicaid applications for all coated makes use of. States should decide into these costs, which means some could not.
However Medicare protection might have an even bigger influence on who will get the medication as a result of this system covers about 66 million individuals, and is the first supply of insurance coverage for individuals ages 65 and above. The brand new weight problems drug protection can be enabled by means of a pilot program designed to cowl a majority of beneficiaries beneath Medicare Half D, that are this system’s prescription drug plans.
One other senior administration official mentioned round 10% of Medicare beneficiaries can be eligible to obtain GLP-1s for weight problems and cardiovascular and metabolic advantages. Eligible sufferers will fall into three cohorts. The primary consists of those that are obese, with a physique mass index better than 27 or with prediabetes or established heart problems.
The second group is individuals with weight problems – with a BMI better than 30 – and uncontrolled hypertension, kidney illness or coronary heart failure. The third group is sufferers with extreme weight problems, or anybody with a BMI better than 35.
GLP-1s for weight reduction are authorized for a wider inhabitants: individuals who have weight problems or are obese with one associated situation. The administration official mentioned, “We’re constraining the entry for sufferers that can profit clinically from it, we have labored very arduous to strike a steadiness between broad entry that simply makes certain to seize sufferers that can profit clinically.”
As a part of the offers, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk additionally made related pledges to those different drugmakers have made as a part of Trump’s most favored nation agreements. The businesses will assure most favored nation pricing on all new medicines they carry to market, present that pricing to each state Medicaid program, provide not less than U.S. web costs or most favored nation pricing on practically all major care medication on TrumpRx and share financial savings from international drug worth will increase on present merchandise, one senior administration official mentioned.
Additionally on Thursday, Eli Lilly mentioned it will decrease costs by $50 by itself direct-to-consumer platform, LillyDirect, which already presents Zepbound at a reduction to cash-paying sufferers. The multi-dose pen of Zepbound can be out there at $299 per thirty days on the lowest dose, with extra doses being priced as much as $449 per thirty days.
Eli Lilly’s capsule, as soon as authorized, can be out there on the lowest dose beginning at $149 per thirty days.
A significant pricing change
In an announcement Thursday, Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks mentioned the deal marks “a pivotal second in U.S. well being care coverage and a defining milestone for Lilly,” which is targeted on “bettering outcomes, strengthening the U.S. healthcare system, and contributing to the well being of our nation for generations to return.”
In a separate assertion, Novo Nordisk CEO Mike Doustdar mentioned “as we speak’s announcement will deliver semaglutide medicines to extra American sufferers at a decrease value.” Semaglutide is the energetic ingredient in Wegovy and Ozempic.
It isn’t the primary time the federal government has floated Medicare protection of weight problems medication. Former President Joe Biden proposed a rule on the finish of his time period that might have allowed this system to cowl these remedies, however the Trump administration in April declined to finalize the measure.
Biden’s proposal would have prolonged entry to roughly 3.4 million Medicare beneficiaries. Nevertheless it was controversial on the time, as it will value taxpayers as a lot as $35 billion over 9 years, a congressional evaluation discovered.
However some well being specialists argue that protecting the medication might eradicate the downstream prices concerned with treating obesity-related circumstances.
Semaglutide can also be included in he subsequent spherical of Medicare drug worth negotiations beneath the Inflation Discount Act, which Biden signed into legislation in 2022. Trump is predicted to unveil the brand new costs of the 15 medication chosen for these talks by Nov. 30.
Tirzepatide, the energetic ingredient in Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and diabetes injection Mounjaro, probably will not be eligible for these negotiations till the top of the last decade.
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