Two pharmaceutical companies agreed to lower the price of their blockbuster weight loss drugs, as well as other medications, in exchange for limited Medicare coverage and in an effort to comply with the Trump administration’s demands for a “most-favored-nation” drug pricing structure, the president announced on Thursday.
“You think it was easy dealing with these people? It wasn’t,” Trump said from the Oval Office. “Nobody else could have ever done it. I say that modestly.”
The companies, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, agreed to reduce the price of their GLP-1 drugs to $149 per month for oral doses of the medications for Americans on Medicare and Medicaid and for patients paying out of pocket. GLP-1s like Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide (sold as Ozempic) and Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide (Mounjaro and Zepbound) can currently cost over $1,000 per month without insurance.
Other forms of GLP-1s, such as injectables, will cost $245 per month for “diabetes and other covered indications,” senior administration officials said Thursday morning.
Trending
The two deals come after several other pharmaceutical companies agreed to offer some medications for reduced prices after Trump signed an executive order demanding companies lower prices to those paid by other countries, known as “most-favored-nation” pricing. Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly also agreed to offer new drugs at lower prices.
But the special GLP-1 pricing deal is a first for the administration, and represents a significant win for Trump, who has long called for pharmaceutical companies to reduce prices on the expensive drugs. But it’s also a boon for the companies, who have not been able to get reimbursement from Medicare for weight-loss treatments (though it covers the drugs for other conditions, such as cardiovascular issues and sleep apnea).
This announcement comes as the president is overseeing a historically long shutdown that remains at a stalemate over health care subsidies. Democrats are demanding to extend Covid-era Affordable Care Act subsidies that Republicans say shouldn’t be attached to government spending. Millions of Americans on the Obamacare exchanges have begun to see notices of increasing premiums with the start of open enrollment in November.
The new lower drug prices will not apply to patients accessing the drugs through private insurance, but senior administration officials said commercial insurers will “also be able to access lower prices.” They estimated that insurers would see GLP-1 prices around 25% lower than current cash prices, “and at worst, prices nothing more than [most-favored-nation] prices today in the commercial market.”
Senior administration officials said the medications would be listed on the Trump administration’s new drug pricing website, Trumprx.gov, which is scheduled to launch in early 2026. The website simply acts as a portal to pharmaceutical companies’ direct-to-consumer platforms and will not sell drugs directly to consumers.
“And of course, there will be no limitations on that should an insurer wish to participate, or employer-sponsored plan wish to participate, in TrumpRx,” the official said. It was not immediately clear what participating in TrumpRx would entail for insurers.
For some patients on Medicare with specific preexisting conditions such as a stroke, a myocardial infarction, peripheral artery disease or a BMI greater than 35, the drugs will be available for a $50 copay, a senior administration official said.
The new prices will be implemented separately from regular Medicare drug price negotiations and will go into effect in mid-2026, administration officials said.
This story has been updated with a comment from the president.
Author
