The White House is close to a deal with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to cut the price of their weight loss drugs in exchange for limited Medicare coverage, according to two people with knowledge of the talks.
The arrangement would reduce the cost of the lowest doses of Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy to as little as $149 a month. In return, Medicare would cover the drugs for some beneficiaries.
It is unclear if the $149 price would apply across private and public insurance or only for cash payments. It is also not clear which Medicare patients would qualify for coverage, and details could still change.
The two people spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is not yet public. Endpoint News first reported the possibility, and The Washington Post said an announcement could come as soon as Thursday.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai avoided confirming the talks, saying that any discussions not officially announced should be treated as speculation. Spokespeople for Lilly and Novo Nordisk confirmed they are in talks but provided no details.
If finalized, the deal would mark a major step in the president’s push to lower prescription drug prices to align more with other developed countries. The initiative, sometimes called the “most favored nation” pricing effort, was revived by an executive order in May after earlier attempts during the prior term.
The administration has previously reached pricing agreements with Pfizer and AstraZeneca to reduce costs for some medications under Medicaid. In October, the president said a deal to lower weight loss drug prices was near, describing a potential cut from about $1,300 to roughly $150.
Currently, Wegovy and Zepbound list for more than $1,000 a month, though both companies have offered lower cash prices. Costco recently announced discounts for Wegovy and Ozempic for the uninsured, and Lilly has a separate deal with Walmart for Zepbound.
Medicare already covers Wegovy for patients at high heart risk and Zepbound for sleep apnea, but not for weight loss alone. Ozempic, which uses the same active ingredient as Wegovy, is covered for diabetes.
The Biden administration proposed expanding GLP-1 drug coverage through Medicare and Medicaid, a plan the Trump administration later rejected. Ozempic and Wegovy are part of the next round of Medicare drug price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act, though the administration has signaled less focus on those negotiations and more on executive actions and voluntary pricing deals. New prices for 15 drugs, including the GLP-1s, were expected by November 1, with final prices anticipated by November 30.
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