Janet McCaskill was on trip in Arizona along with her husband and greatest good friend when she heard that President Donald Trump had recommended he would possibly be capable of deliver the price of common weight-loss medication all the way down to $150 a month.
“The thought of it going to $150 a month is dramatic,” stated McCaskill, a grandmother from North Carolina who’s lost 100 pounds with the assistance of GLP-1 medicines, a class greatest recognized for the diabetes drug Ozempic. “That is most fantastic – if it comes to pass.”
Trump planted the thought Thursday in an Oval Office information convention about a completely totally different set of medication – these for in vitro fertilization – earlier than his Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator, Dr. Mehmet Oz, stepped in to warn it wasn’t a done deal.
Nonetheless, Trump’s feedback made waves. Patients who’ve struggled to afford the expensive medicines shared hope the value could be reached. Doctors known as it “huge for patients,” if true. And in a signal that Wall Street took it critically, shares of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, the makers of GLP-1 medication Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound, fell considerably, wiping out tens of billions of {dollars} within the firms’ market values.
It’s simply not clear it’ll really occur.
It began with a acquainted chorus from the president, who’s previously lamented the associated fee distinction of weight-loss medication in Europe in contrast with the US.
“In London, you’d buy a certain drug for $130 … and in New York, you pay $1,300 for the same thing,” Trump stated in opening remarks of his IVF announcement Thursday. “So now we’re going to be paying, instead of $1,300, you’ll be paying about $150.”
A reporter, Max Beyer of Endpoints News, made the connection, asking later if Trump was referring to bringing weight-loss medication all the way down to $150. The president confirmed he was “referring to Ozempic, or the fat-loss drug … they’ll be much lower.”
Dr. Oz interrupts Trump as he vows to lower weight reduction drug costs
At that time, Dr. Oz began to look uncomfortable, stepping as much as the rostrum with a refined shaking of his head.
“We have not negotiated those yet,” Oz clarified. “We’re going to be rolling these out over time.”
It didn’t take lengthy for Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly’s shares to react, every dropping about 4% in after hours buying and selling Thursday and sustaining losses by buying and selling on Friday. A Wall Street analyst, Evan Seigerman of BMO Capital Markets, sought to assuage investor fears of coming value cuts in a analysis word Thursday night that known as Trump’s remarks “aggressive posturing amidst negotiations.”
The drug firms have been tight-lipped. Novo Nordisk, which makes Ozempic and its weight-loss counterpart, Wegovy, instructed NCS that the corporate “has engaged in discussions” with the Trump administration about drug pricing within the context of the president’s Most Favored Nation government order, an strategy that dictates the US shouldn’t pay extra for medicines than the bottom value provided to look nations.
Medicines are routinely bought at markedly greater costs within the US than different nations, together with diabetes and weight-loss medication: Ozempic is priced 10 instances greater within the US than France, in response to a 2023 analysis from Peterson-KFF.
“We remain focused on improving patient access and affordability, and we will continue to work to find solutions that help people access the medication they need,” a Novo Nordisk spokeswoman stated.
A spokesman for Eli Lilly, which makes Mounjaro for diabetes and Zepbound for weight reduction, stated the corporate is “not aware of any specific price commitments,” and that it’s “in discussions with the administration to further expand patient access, preserve innovation and promote affordability for our medicines.”
The president has introduced offers with Pfizer, AstraZeneca and EMD Serono prior to now month underneath the Most Favored Nation framework, and has promised extra to return. The offers to this point have included an providing of medicines at Most Favored Nation costs to Medicaid – a system that already receives heavy reductions – in addition to offers on sure medication that may be bought instantly by customers, with out insurance coverage, by a new platform known as TrumpRx.
In return, drugmakers have received reprieves from the specter of tariffs, so long as they proceed to spend money on manufacturing and analysis within the US.
Thus far, the offers have appeared impartial or optimistic to pharmaceutical firms, with Pfizer’s stock rising the day of its announcement and buoying opponents together with it. The agreements, Seigerman wrote, “have been far from a sweeping implementation of US pricing cuts.”
The medication Pfizer and the White House famous would be offered by the TrumpRx program don’t seem to be used fairly often within the US, face generic competitors within the close to future, or carry such excessive listing costs that even steep reductions for cash-paying patients would go away the medicines unaffordable for most individuals, stated Stacie Dusetzina, a professor of well being coverage at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
GLP-1 medicines, although, so-called for a hormone they mimic, are utilized by thousands and thousands of Americans, and “if you look at the barriers to using them, cost is the number one thing,” stated Dr. Louis Aronne, director of the Comprehensive Weight Control Center at Weill Cornell Medicine.
From 1000’s to a whole bunch
The medicines are all priced, earlier than insurance coverage or reductions, at about $1,000 a month or extra within the US. With business insurance coverage protection, many patients pay as little as $25 out of pocket. But protection can be thorny, particularly for weight reduction, and some insurers are reducing coverage.
McCaskill skilled that firsthand. She began utilizing Mounjaro in late 2022 to attempt to drop extra pounds, and had such robust outcomes, she credit the drugs with saving her life. But her insurance coverage didn’t cowl it, and it was so costly she switched to a compounded model made by a native pharmacy.
Compounders sometimes make medication that require personalization, like if a affected person is allergic to a sure ingredient or wants different modifications made. But regulation additionally permits compounding when medicines are in scarcity, and GLP-1 producers had bother assembly outsized demand for a number of years, opening up a whole market of off-brand, compounded GLP-1s.
Though the shortages have now ended, some purveyors nonetheless supply compounded variations of the medicines, at a lot decrease costs than Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly – even after the companies introduced money pay discounted choices.
McCaskill stated she switched to a Lilly program that allowed her to purchase its weight-loss drug, Zepbound, directly at at discount after her native compounding pharmacy stopped promoting the treatment. But it prices her about $500 a month. Her greatest good friend, Kay Powell, a nurse, can be on one of many medicines, but will get a compounded model by one other pharmacy she trusts for $150.
“I’m moving back to the compound just as soon as I can get to my doctor next week,” McCaskill instructed NCS Friday.
“We’re price shopping,” Powell added. “We’re going to buy it wherever it’s most affordable.”
The White House and US Department of Health and Human Services didn’t instantly reply to inquiries from NCS about Trump’s $150 promise from the Oval Office.
And doctors, analysts and coverage researchers have been skeptical they’d attain a $150 deal – and even what that may imply.
Trump’s feedback could be “more to get these guys to make a deal than to actually get the price to $150 over the short term,” stated Jared Holz, a well being care strategist for monetary agency Mizuho Securities USA. “Everything that comes out of this administration seems like it’s a precursor to some sort of transaction.”
Dr. William Feldman, a doctor and well being coverage researcher at UCLA, identified Novo Nordisk is also in negotiations with Oz’s CMS over pricing of semaglutide – the generic title of Ozempic and Wegovy – for Medicare, underneath a framework specified by President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. He famous it’s not clear if a $150 month-to-month value would be a part of these negotiations or a broader settlement exterior them.
“$150 a month gets closer to prices for semaglutide in other parts of the world and even to prices for compounded versions in the US,” he instructed NCS by e-mail Friday. “This could be a boon for patients and could drive increased uptake in the US. However – and this is a big however – I’d like to see more details.”
Dr. Jody Dushay, an attending doctor in endocrinology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and assistant professor of medication at Harvard Medical School, stated she refers patients to each Lilly and Novo Nordisk for his or her self-pay choices after they don’t have insurance coverage protection, but identified “for many patients $500 a month is still totally unaffordable.”
She urges patients to avoid compounded merchandise, although, “due to lack of regulation and unknown safety and efficacy.”
If the branded variations have been priced at $150 a month, entry “would greatly increase,” stated Dr. Jorge Moreno, an weight problems specialist and assistant professor at Yale School of Medicine. “Even more patients would be willing and able to afford paying” for them.
Affording GLP-1 medicines could make individuals really feel determined at their present costs and with out insurance coverage protection, McCaskill stated, particularly as she’s seen not simply dramatic weight reduction but enhancements in her ldl cholesterol and different well being markers.
“Between the three of us, we’ve probably lost – what – 260 pounds?” Powell added, together with McCaskill’s husband, Barry, within the tally.
They all stated they’d change to the branded variations, away from the compounded ones, in the event that they have been provided at comparable costs.
“It’s the real thing,” Barry stated. “No question.”
NCS’s Tami Luhby contributed to this report.