Trump Strikes Deal With Big Pharma to Reduce *American* Prices for Weight Loss Drugs Ozempic and Mounjaro

Well, with all of the angst about the economy and Trump spending too much focus on foreign policy, I guess this is helpful.

Supposedly, the price would drop, eventually, to $245 per month for those paying cash. We'll see.

U.S. President Donald Trump, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk unveiled a deal on Thursday to slash the prices of popular GLP-1 weight‑loss drugs for the government's Medicare and Medicaid programs, as well as for cash payers.

The move is aimed at increasing access to the treatments through U.S. Medicare for people aged 65 and over and the Medicaid program for low-income people, which together provide healthcare coverage for nearly half of all Americans.

U.S. patients currently pay by far the most for prescription medicines, often nearly three times more than in other developed nations, and Trump has been pressuring drugmakers to lower their prices to what patients pay elsewhere.

"GLP-1s have been top of mind and not just because of the cardiometabolic benefits that they provide, but also because it is an issue of fairness and utilization and pricing and access and affordability for the American people," an administration official told reporters.

Starter doses of rival weight‑loss pills being developed by Lilly and Novo, if approved, will cost $149 per month for all Medicare and Medicaid enrollees and via the White House's new direct-to-consumer site, TrumpRx, senior administration officials said.

For currently available injectable GLP-1s used for diabetes and other covered health issues, prices would fall to $245 per month for patients with Medicare or Medicaid, they said.

On TrumpRx, the average price of injectables and pills will start at or below $350 monthly and is expected to trend downward to $245 within two years.

I tried to get on Mounjaro. The cost was something obscene like $1400 per month, but you could sign up for a coupon and "only" pay $550 or something.

$350 would be expensive but, I guess, obtainable.

Think about all the money I'd save on Ho-Ho's.

In Medicare, patients' co-pays will be capped at $50 a month, officials said.
Commercial health insurers would also be able to access prices estimated to be 25% lower than current cash prices, they said.

The government will also expand coverage for GLP-1s under the deal, officials said, to overweight patients with prediabetes or heart problems, obese patients with comorbidities and severely obese patients, accounting for 10% of Medicare patients.

posted by Ace at 01:10 PM

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