Certain obesity drugs will cost as little as $149 and Medicare will start covering them under White House deals

By Tami Luhby, Meg Tirrell, CNN

(CNN) — Certain blockbuster obesity drugs will be available for as little as $149 per month and more Medicare enrollees will have access to them under two deals announced Thursday by the Trump administration.

The arrangements with drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, which President Donald Trump foreshadowed in remarks last month, are the latest in the administration’s efforts to lower drug prices. As part of the new deals, the drugmakers have also agreed to match prices to the lowest paid in peer nations for all their drugs in Medicaid as well as for the list prices when their medications first hit the market. They will also offer primary care medicines directly to consumers at discounted prices.

In exchange, the drugmakers are getting breaks on tariffs on imported pharmaceutical products and a dramatically expedited regulatory review for certain medicines.

The prices consumers pay under the deals, however, will vary based on their coverage and how they purchase the medications, among other factors. The current list price of the drugs ranges from roughly $1,000 to $1,350, though the ultimate cost for consumers depends on their insurance and on discounts.

Under the deal, those buying injectable GLP-1 medications directly from the companies will pay an average of $350 per month to start, though the drugmakers have committed to reducing the price to about $250 over the next two years, according to senior administration officials. If oral GLP-1 tablets are approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, the lowest dose will cost $149.

These prices will be available when TrumpRx, the administration’s direct-to-consumer website, launches in early 2026 – though consumers will be able to see the medications’ costs before the year’s end, said Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ administrator.

Novo Nordisk currently offers a direct-to-consumer option for those willing to pay cash for Ozempic and Wegovy at $499 a month. Lilly also offers cash-pay options for its weight-loss drug Zepbound that start at $349 a month.

Eligible Medicare enrollees, meanwhile, will have a $50 copay for certain GLP-1 medications approved for both obesity and diabetes. The drugmakers will reduce the prices Medicare pays to $245, which will help pay for expanded coverage of weight loss drugs. The prices will take effect in mid-2026.

As part of the deal, the Trump administration is broadening access to obesity drugs for Medicare enrollees with certain medical conditions. Medicare, by law, is not allowed to cover medications for weight loss, but the Biden administration last year proposed reinterpreting the statute to allow coverage for the treatment of obesity as a chronic disease.

Trump officials halted that effort. The administration noted in a call with reporters Thursday that it achieved price reductions, which will make the expansion cost-neutral, while the Biden administration did not include price cuts. The Biden proposal was estimated to cost Medicare $25 billion over a decade.

Under the new arrangement, consumers who are overweight and have prediabetes or who have had a stroke or other cardiovascular disease will be eligible, as will those who have obesity and diabetes or uncontrolled high blood pressure and severe obesity.

About 10% of Medicare enrollees would be eligible for expanded access under the deals, senior administration officials said. Medicare already covers certain weight loss drugs if they are also approved to treat certain medical conditions.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have also agreed to provide the GLP-1 medications at lower prices to state Medicaid programs, though the timing will depend on negotiations with each state. Some 13 states covered the costly drugs for weight loss as of August 2024, according to a KFF survey, though North Carolina recently announced it would no longer do so.

The deals were described by several administration officials as helping make Americans healthier by using the medications to address their obesity, along with lifestyle changes, including more exercise and healthier eating, which should lead to a reduction in chronic disease.

“This is a tool in the toolkit. It is not a silver bullet,” said US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has long opposed obesity drugs but moderated his views once he joined the administration. “It will allow a lot of people who are locked into high-risk obesity to finally lose weight, to reset and then start doing the kind of things that will address the root causes of obesity.”

Most Favored Nation pricing

In his second term, Trump has revived a controversial initiative to base drug prices in the US on those in other developed countries, so-called Most Favored Nation pricing. His current efforts focus on getting drugmakers to voluntarily agree to reduce their prices in exchange for various incentives.

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 Oz to jump in and emphasize that the negotiations were still ongoing.

Notably, Ozempic and Wegovy were selected in January for a 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.

Varying costs

People who pay for a Zepbound multidose pen with cash through Eli Lilly’s direct-to-consumer channel will pay $299 for the lowest dose and $449 for additional doses, the drugmaker said in a news release Thursday. The latter is a $50 discount from the current self-pay option and similar to the prices in Europe.

Patients who refill their multidose pens through LillyDirect will not pay more than $449.

Meanwhile, Eli Lilly’s weight-loss tablet, which is still awaiting FDA approval, will be priced starting at $149 for the lowest dose.

Starting as early as April 1, Medicare enrollees will pay no more than $50 a month for Zepbound’s multidose pen and for the obesity pill, provided both are approved, Eli Lilly said.

Novo Nordisk will offer its Wegovy pill for $149, if it is approved, in its direct-to-consumer channel, the company said in a statement. It said it will also lower its prices for the injectable medicines, including Wegovy and Ozempic, for Medicare, Medicaid and direct-to-consumer patients, but it did not provide details.

The company said it will update its self-pay offers for the two medications in coming weeks.

Both weight-loss tablets — Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy pill and Lilly’s orforglipron — were named by the FDA Thursday as drugs that would get an expedited regulatory review. Called the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher pilot program, it aims to shorten FDA reviews of promising new medicines to one to two months, from as many as ten to 12.

Doctors and patients are watching

Trump’s announcement came as thousands of obesity clinicians and researchers gathered in Atlanta for the annual ObesityWeek conference. When news of the deals began to spread Thursday, some doctors said they were hopeful but eager to see more details — and what their patients actually experience.

Dr. Kimberly Gudzune, the chief medical officer for the American Board of Obesity Medicine Foundation, said it has been demoralizing to dangle the carrot of effective weight loss medicines in front of patients only for them to learn the drugs aren’t affordable. Slowly, she’s seeing changes that could have an impact, especially on people with lower incomes.

“I think that will open it up to people who … had dismissed the thought that they might ever be able to afford it, so it’s a potentially very exciting time,” Gudzune said.

Michele Rouse, the program coordinator for the Healthful Eating, Activity and Weight Program at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said she has lost 70 pounds on Wegovy over three years. Insurance has always covered the medication for her, she said, but she works with patients for whom cost is a barrier.

When insurance won’t cover the medication, “it’s deflating, because … they’re really motivated to start this journey and start this process, and then it’s almost like they’re starting again at step one,” Rouse said from ObesityWeek.

“This would be a lifesaver for so many patients who are desperate to get to the point where they can get this weight under control,” she said. “It would be awesome for these patients. It really would be.”

CNN’s Brenda Goodman and Adam Cancryn contributed to this report.

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