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Dive Brief:
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly will sell their GLP-1 drugs for obesity and diabetes to some Medicare enrollees for $245 a month under an agreement hammered out with the Trump administration, the White House announced Thursday.
Through the deal, the two companies will also offer some of the same drugs through an online government portal for about $350 a month. Lilly and Novo will additionally be required to sell starter doses of their coming oral obesity medicines, if approved by regulators, for $149 a month. They’ll have to offer all their weight loss drugs to state Medicaid programs at “most favored nation” prices, too.
The new figures represent discounts to the list prices of Wegovy and Zepbound, which are $1,350 and $1,080 a month, respectively, as well as the $499 monthly charge on Lilly and Novo’s direct-to-consumer sites. But comparisons are different when weighed against the “net” prices that follow negotiations with insurers.
Dive Insight:
The outgoing Biden administration in its waning days sought to extend Medicare and Medicaid coverage to Wegovy and Zepbound, but the Trump administration shelved that effort.
The deal announced Thursday is more expansive, involving both a method of broadening access to obesity drugs and the Trump administration’s push to equalize U.S. prices with those paid in other developed nations. The agreement even dipped into other parts of Lilly and Novo’s portfolio, with both agreeing to discounted prices for migraine and diabetes medicines that are sold through the new government website.
Still, the Medicare price for GLP-1 drugs will be offered through a pilot program that will cover most beneficiaries, Novo said in a separate press release. That may be necessary, as the law that authorized Medicare coverage of prescription drugs specifically bars weight loss products. But it also likely limits which Medicare beneficiaries will qualify, and could have a fixed expiration date. Those that do benefit will have a $50 monthly copay.
The agreement also won’t apply to the vast majority of people who receive their medications through commercial insurance.
In agreeing to price cuts, Novo and Lilly have been spared from any tariffs on their drugs for three years, a benefit similarly handed to Pfizer and AstraZeneca following deals with the White House. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration awarded the oral version of Wegovy and Lilly’s experimental obesity pill orforglipron “national priority” vouchers that could drastically shorten regulatory reviews.
Novo expects a negative “low single-digit impact” on global sales growth in 2026, when implementation of the new prices is expected. Lilly didn’t specify how its sales might be impacted.
