Trump’s Drug Pricing Agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk

President Donald Trump recently announced that he has secured Most Favored Nation (MFN) drug pricing agreements with Eli Lilly & Company and Novo Nordisk. This makes them the fourth and fifth major pharmaceutical companies to reach similar agreements in recent months.

According to the White House, with a future subscription to Trump RX, Novo Nordisk’s type 2 diabetes and weight loss medications, Wegovy and Ozempic, will see significant price reductions. The costs will drop to around $350 a month from previous prices of $1,350 and $1,000, respectively. A release from the administration provided these details.

Eli Lilly’s diabetes and weight loss drugs, Zepbound and Orforglipron, are also set to be discounted significantly—from $1,068 per month to an average of $346 when ordered through the TrumpRx platform.

Furthermore, if the FDA approves the Wegovy pill or similar GLP-1 drugs that are intended for oral use, the cost for the initial dose is expected to be $150 per month by 2019, according to the Trump RX release.

President Trump affirmed that Medicare and Medicaid will now cover these weight loss medications for millions of individuals dealing with obesity, a statement he made during an event in the Oval Office.

Prices for all four drugs under Medicare will be set at $245 per month, which is significantly lower than what the Biden administration had proposed, as reported by the White House.

The administration claims that it has also negotiated lower prices for additional medications, and all new drugs introduced to the market will come with MFN pricing.

• Eli Lilly’s migraine medication, Emgality, will be available for $299 per pen, offering a discount of $443 off retail prices.
• The diabetes drug Trulicity from Eli Lilly will be priced at $389 per month, a savings of $598 from the list price.
• Novo Nordisk’s popular insulin products, including NovoLog and Tresiba, are set to be sold for $35 per month.

In addition to lowering drug prices, Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk plan to invest $10 billion and $27 billion, respectively, in the United States. If approved, the manufacturing of Wegovy tablets will take place entirely in the U.S., as stated by the White House.

The agreements with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly follow earlier MFN agreements made with Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and EMD Serono since late September.