President Donald Trump is moving to lower the cost of anti-obesity and weight loss drugs. Trump announced a deal with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to cut the cost of the GLP-1 drugs for people struggling with obesity. Under the president’s agreement, Oral doses of GLP-1 drugs will cost $149 a month for Medicare and Medicaid, and $245 for other doses of weight loss medication. The usual cost of these breakthrough medications can cost over $1000 in a month depending on the market.
‘I call it the fat drug, remember?’ Trump asked the press, referring to past comments on the drugs. The drug has been credited with dramatic weight loss, especially among celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey who has promoted the drugs as an effective way to lose weight. To date, George Santos remains the most prominent American political figure to have explicitly admitted taking Ozempic
The president praised the drugs for helping Americans lose weight and improve their health. He also spoke about people he knew who were on the medication. ‘You take any of this stuff Lutnick?’ Trump asked his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. ‘Not yet,’ Lutnick replied. The president revealed that ‘Steve’ the ‘head of public relations for the White House’ also used the medication, a potential reference to White House communications director Steven Cheung.
The White House would not confirm Cheung’s use of the med. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised the president for making the drugs more affordable and available to Americans. ‘The American public, because of this agreement, will lose 125 million pounds by this time next year — so it is going to have dramatic effects on human health in this country,’ he said.
A senior Trump administration official told reporters that the president’s deal would help people both lose weight and reduce the costs associated with an obese lifestyle. ‘Over 40 percent of Americans have obesity it’s the second leading cause of preventable death in the United States and we spend over $300 billion directly on medical costs for obesity,’ the official noted. ‘Make no mistake, we’re in a war against obesity,’ the official added.
Patients eligible for the new price point include those with pre-diabetes, established cardiovascular disease, obesity with uncontrolled hypertension, kidney disease, heart failure, and severe obesity. Medicare patients can expect to pay a co-pay of $50 under the new agreement, the official noted. The president has been fixated on the high costs of anti-obesity drugs, frequently expressing his frustration that they cost more in the United States than they do overseas.
‘A friend of mine who’s a businessman — very, very, very top guy, most of you would have heard of him — a highly neurotic, brilliant businessman, seriously overweight, and he takes the fat shot,’ Trump told reporters at the White House in May. Trump revealed that his friend told him that he purchased his anti-obesity drugs in London for $88, but when he was in New York, he was paying $1,300. ‘They’ve been justifying this crap for years,’ Trump said at the time, referring to pharmaceutical companies.
But now chief executives of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly were all smiles as they celebrated the new deal with the president. ‘We are standing here hand in hand as friends to have a common cause and the cause is to really provide access to millions of patients,’ Maziar Mike Doustdar, CEO of Novo Nordisk told the president.
