Obesity Drugs May Drop to as Little as $150 a Month
President Trump announced a deal with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to lower prices on hugely popular weight-loss drugs for Medicare, Medicaid and American patients who pay with their own money.
nytimes.com
President Trump on Thursday announced a deal that could significantly expand access for millions of Americans to hugely popular obesity drugs by reducing the price to as little as $150 a month.
The Trump administration’s agreements with the drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly would save consumers and the government considerable money on Wegovy, Zepbound and two obesity pills that are expected to win regulatory approval in the coming months.
The lowest price, of $150 a month, will be available only for the lowest doses of the pill form of the drugs. When those drugs reach the market, Medicare and Medicaid will pay that price, as will Americans using their own money to buy the pills directly from manufacturers.
The deal also broadens coverage of the injectable drugs for people on Medicare and Medicaid, the federal insurance programs for older people and those with lower incomes, and lowers the prices the government pays in those programs. Those measures are likely to expand access but still will stop far short of covering all of the millions of people with obesity under those federal programs.
The announcement comes amid a record-long government shutdown over disagreements in Congress over health care costs. Democrats have been withholding their votes on a government spending bill unless Republicans agree to extend subsidies that help Americans by Obamacare insurance.
Mr. Trump, who has long decried the high costs of prescription drugs, has announced a series of deals with drugmakers to lower their cash prices and commit to expanded manufacturing in the United States in exchange for exemptions from high tariffs. The deal on the diabetes and obesity medicines is likely to have the largest consumer impact, given the popularity of the drugs and the large number of Americans who already pay for them out-of-pocket.
Officials said that within the next few months, Americans would be able to use their own money to buy Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound — which are both taken as injections — directly from manufacturers for an average of $350 a month, depending on the dose. The officials said they expected the average to fall to $245 over the next two years.
... nytimes.com |
