shares of Eli Lilly and novo nordisk Stocks fell on Friday after President Donald Trump announced that the company aims to cut the cost of its brand-name GLP-1 weight loss drug to $150 a month, a fraction of its current list price.
“In London, you buy certain drugs for $130, and it’s cheaper than that…a month ago, it was $88. And in New York, you pay $1,300 for the same thing,” Trump said Thursday afternoon at a White House event about in vitro fertilization. “Instead of $1,300, you’re going to pay about $150, and they’re going to pay $150, so we’re going to pay the same amount.”
Asked by a reporter what drug he was referring to, Trump replied, “Ozempic. I was talking about a fat-loss drug.”
At that point, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz interjected, emphasizing that the administration had not yet agreed to lower prices for GLP-1 with drug companies.
“We haven’t negotiated those yet… We’re going to roll these out over time, but the GLP category of drugs, including Ozempic, have not been negotiated yet,” Oz said.
Just a week ago, Oz said his administration was “in the middle of a lot of action” in price negotiations with weight-loss drug makers.
Eli Lilly shares closed 2% lower on Friday, and Novo Nordisk shares fell 3% in U.S. trading. on the other hand, his and her health The company, which sells a much cheaper formulation of GLP-1, plunged more than 15%.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk were among 17 of the largest U.S. drug companies to receive a letter from the Trump administration requiring companies to bring U.S. drug prices in line with drug prices in other developed countries, following an executive order on so-called most-favored-nation pricing.
pfizer and AstraZeneca They signed the presidential initiative and entered into a drug pricing agreement with the administration. But Trump and Oz’s comments make it clear that the administration is aiming to get weight-loss drug makers on board.
At $150, GLP-1 would be cheaper than a compounder.
Demand for weight loss drugs is increasing, but price remains an obstacle for consumers and employers.
Only about one in five large employers currently offers GLP-1 for weight loss purposes, according to a new study from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Of those respondents, two-thirds said high-priced drugs had a “significant” impact on their prescription drug spending.
Workers without health insurance coverage increasingly rely on the cash market to buy their own medicines.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk sell discounted versions of their diabetes and weight-loss drugs on direct-to-consumer sites for about $500 a month. Telemedicine providers like Hims & Hers offer a combined version of GLP-1 for less than half that price, between $130 and $200 per month.
If the administration were able to lower the cash price of popular weight loss drugs like Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wigoby to $150, it could make them more competitive with compounding options and have a major impact on the current cash market.
