An attendee at President Donald Trump ‘s drug pricing event on Thursday collapsed. The man, whom the White House has refused to identify, fainted just feet away from the president, who was seated at the Resolute Desk. The health scare led to the event being paused, with White House aides quickly telling reporters that they needed to leave the Oval Office. Dr. Mehmet Oz, who serves as Trump’s Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, jumped into action, helping the man to the floor and then offering him medical attention.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the attendee was doing fine moments later. ‘During the Most Favored Nations Oval Office Announcement, a representative with one of the companies fainted. The White House Medical Unit quickly jumped into action, and the gentleman is okay. The Press Conference will resume shortly,’ she said in a statement. When the press conference resumed, the president acknowledged the incident.
‘One of the representatives of the companies, one of the companies, got a little bit light-headed. You saw he went down. And he’s fine. They just sent him out, he’s got doctor’s care, but he’s fine,’ Trump said. ‘So we had a little bit of an interruption, sorry about that.’ Trump was announcing that he was tackling the price of the ‘fat drug.’
Attendees included executives from Novo Nordisk, which makes the popular weight loss shot Ozempic, and Eli Lilly, the maker of Zepbound. The White House announced that the deal would allow some weight loss pills to be available for just $149 a month. Medicare enrollees will also have more access to the drugs.
In return, drug makers will get a break on Trump’s tariffs on imported pharmaceutical products. Trump lauded the weight loss drugs, saying that they don’t have the same list of side effects as lots of other prescriptions on the market. ‘So far, I’ve never heard anything bad about them,’ Trump said at the top of his remarks. ‘Is there anything bad about them?’ he asked his Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was standing nearby.
The president then went around introducing members of the Cabinet and staff. He asked his Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick if he was taking Ozempic. ‘Not yet,’ Lutnick replied. Trump then outed one of his communications aides for taking weight loss medication.
