President Donald Trump announced agreement on Most Favored Nations (MFN) drug pricing deals with Eli Lilly & Company and Novo Nordisk, marking the fourth and fifth major drug companies with which the administration has reached deals in recent months.
When purchased through the forthcoming TrumpRX website, which will be operational in January, the Novo Nordisk-produced type 2 diabetes and weight-loss drugs, Wegovy and Ozempic, which also treat other conditions, will be dramatically more affordable at $350 each, down from a respective $1,350 and $1,000 per month, according to a White House release.
Eli Lilly & Company’s type 2 diabetes and weight loss drugs, Zepbound and Orforglipron, will see reductions from $1,068 a month to an average of $346 a month when patients buy them through the TrumpRx website.
“In the event that the FDA later approves the Wegovy pill, or certain similar ‘GLP-1’ drugs in each company’s pipeline intended to be taken orally rather than as a shot, the initial dose of those drugs will be priced at $150 per month through TrumpRx,” the release notes.
“Medicare and Medicaid will finally cover the cost of these weight loss drugs for millions of patients suffering from obesity,” Trump said in the Oval Office on Thursday.
Medicare prices for all four drugs will drop to $245 per month, substantially lower than the Biden administration had proposed for the products, per the White House release.
The administration agreed with the companies on a reduction in other drug prices, and all new medicines they bring to the markets will be offered at MFN prices, per the White House:
- Eli Lilly will provide Emgality, a treatment for migraines, at $299 per pen, a discount of $443 off of the list price.
- Eli Lilly will provide Trulicity, a commonly used diabetes medicine, at $389 per month, a discount of $598 off of the list price.
- Novo Nordisk will provide widely-used insulin products, including NovoLog and Tresiba, at $35 per month of supply.
In addition to agreements to lower prices for consumers, Eli Lilly and Company and Novo Nordisk will invest $10 billion and $27 billion in the United States. If approved, the Wegovy tablet will be produced “end-to-end” in the United States, per the White House.
The deals with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly and Company come on the heels of MFN deals the administration has struck with Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and EMD Serono since late September.
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