Trump administration nears deals with pharmaceutical companies to offer obesity drugs for $149 a month

The injectable drug Ozempic is shown, in Houston, in July 2023. The Trump administration is nearing deals with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk. | David J. Phillip/AP/File via CNN Newsource (CNN) — The Trump administration is nearing deals with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to offer some of their obesity drugs to consumers for as low as $149 per month, according to two people familiar with the negotiations. The agreements would also clear the way for Medicare to cover the drugs for certain beneficiaries — a move that could broaden the market for medications like Wegovy, Zepbound and Mounjaro that have already proven widely popular despite their steep prices. The list price of the drugs range from roughly $1,000 to $1,350, though the price consumers pay depends on their insurance and on discounts. President Donald Trump is expected to announce the deals as soon as Thursday, though the people familiar with the negotiations cautioned that they are not finalized and that officials are still working through key policy details. In a statement, White House spokesman Kush Desai said that “discussion about deals that have not been officially announced by the administration should be regarded as speculation.” Press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday declined to confirm the planned announcement, but said a deal that cuts the cost of the obesity drugs was “something that the administration has been engaged and looking into.” The negotiations over Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk’s obesity drugs represent perhaps the highest-profile element of a broader White House push to cut drug prices by striking individual deals with pharmaceutical manufacturers. The “Most Favored Nation” initiative has so far resulted in agreements with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and other companies to sell certain products directly to consumers at a reduced price — often in exchange for relief from the threat of targeted tariffs. Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk already provide their weight loss drugs at a discount directly to consumers who pay cash. Yet Trump has fixated in particular on striking a deal for GLP-1 medications that have exploded in popularity in recent years for helping with weight loss and a range of chronic conditions. The president has referred to them in both public and private as the “fat-loss drug.” “We’re going to be paying, instead of $1,300, you’ll be paying about $150,” Trump said of the GLP-1 drugs during a mid-October event highlighting a separate drug price deal, prompting US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services chief Mehmet Oz to jump in and emphasize that the negotiations were still ongoing. Endpoints News first reported that deals were approaching the finish line. It’s unclear exactly which of the companies’ drugs will be sold for $149 and whether there will be restrictions on consumers’ access to them. The deals are related to a pilot program that CMS is in the final stages of developing aimed at capping the cost of the obesity drugs for some Medicare beneficiaries, one of the people familiar with the negotiations said. “We have been in dialogue with President Trump’s administration for a long time now, and our aim is exactly the same: provide affordable access to as many people as possible,” said Mike Doustdar, Novo Nordisk’s chief executive, in an interview with CNN Wednesday morning after the company reported quarterly earnings. “Hopefully we’ll be able to solve the solution where there is better access than today.” Doustdar noted the negotiations are ongoing, and didn’t comment on any specific details. He said the company’s cash-pay option for Ozempic and Wegovy, at $499 a month for patients outside of insurance, is “the channel that’s right now growing the most.” Lilly also offers cash-pay options for its weight-loss drug Zepbound that start at $349 a month. Weight-loss drugs, Doustdar added, increasingly resemble a consumer market – one more driven by new product updates that he compared to iPhones, rather than a more traditional pharmaceutical market like for insulin, where patients find a version that works for them and usually go through insurance. “Within obesity care, we have seen that patients – customers – get excited about that next best thing,” Doustdar said. The expected deals with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk follow a yearslong debate on both sides of the aisle over whether Medicare and Medicaid should cover the pricey drugs. The Biden administration last year officially proposed expanding coverage of them, though the plan was not finalized before Trump took office. The Trump administration said in April that it was halting the proposal but left the door open to consider future policy options for covering the drugs. Also, notably, Ozempic and Wegovy were selected in January for second round of Medicare drug price negotiations, which is expected to result in savings for the program and, possibly, for enrollees depending on their drug coverage. Trump’s current health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., vehemently opposed efforts to make the medications more accessible, telling Fox News ahead of last November’s election that Novo Nordisk — which makes Ozempic — was “counting on selling it to Americans because we are so stupid and so addicted to drugs.” But since joining the administration, he has struck a far more accommodating tone, expressing openness to patients using them if prior efforts to improve their health have failed.The post Trump administration nears deals with pharmaceutical companies to offer obesity drugs for $149 a month appeared first on East Idaho News.
Source: eastidahonews.com