A wave of vital prescription drugs is about to get a lot cheaper for people on Medicare.
The Trump administration announced Tuesday that it has successfully negotiated lower prices for 15 drugs, including medications used for asthma, diabetes, arthritis and multiple forms of cancer. The list includes Ozempic and Wegovy, Novo Nordisk’s drugs for Type 2 diabetes and weight management, as well as Rybelsus, Novo’s oral GLP-1 for treating diabetes.
The deal for cheaper prescription drugs grew out of an initiative put in place by the Inflation Reduction Act, the signature legislative package passed in 2022 during the Biden administration. That law opened the door for Medicare to negotiate drug prices directly with pharmaceutical companies.
The first wave of those negotiations happened last year, when the Biden administration secured pricing for 10 prescription drugs, including diabetes drug Januvia, arthritis drug Enbrel and Eliquis, which is used for blood clots. Many of the drugs the federal government wanted to make cheaper have life-saving applications.
The new round of 15 drugs with lower prices came out of negotiation through that same process rather than Trump’s “Most-Favored-Nation” plan to lower prescription drug prices through executive action and direct pressure on drug makers.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration secured a separate deal to lower the price of drugs like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound in exchange for three years of tariff relief. That deal will also reduce costs for people who want to buy weight loss drugs directly out of pocket.
“Whether through the Inflation Reduction Act or President Trump’s Most Favored Nation policy, this is what serious, fair, and disciplined negotiation looks like,” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Medicare Director Chris Klomp said in a press release.
New pricing under the deal reflects the prices Medicare will pay drug companies, not what consumers will pay to fill their prescriptions. Under the new terms, Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy drop from $959 for a 30-day supply to $274, while Trelegy Ellipta, an asthma inhaler, drops from $654 to $175. The full list of renegotiated drug prices is available on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services website.
Trump officials clash over GLP-1s
In a press release, even Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr praised the new drug prices. Kennedy’s public support for the drug deal suggests that he has fallen in line behind Trump, who wants to make GLP-1 drugs available to more Americans.
Kennedy is famously opposed to weight-loss drugs like Ozempic and has made misleading statements about them in the past, including the false claim that Novo Nordisk doesn’t market its own drugs in its home country of Denmark. “They’re counting on selling it to Americans because we’re so stupid and so addicted to drugs,” Kennedy said in an interview he shared on Instagram last year.
Kennedy sang a different tune in the announcement from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, vowing to use “every tool at our disposal” to make healthcare more affordable for seniors. “President Trump directed us to stop at nothing to lower health care costs for the American people,” Kennedy said.
Historically, Medicare can’t legally cover the cost of drugs prescribed solely for weight loss, but the Trump administration is pushing to get around those rules – something the Biden administration also pursued.
While the nation’s top health official has reservations about prescription weight loss drugs being made available to more people, most Americans don’t share that view. A survey last year from the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 61% of adults think Medicare should cover the cost of GLP-1 drugs for people wishing to lose weight.
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