What You Should Know:
– President Donald J. Trump announced the latest in a series of significant actions to lower prescription drug prices, unveiling agreements with pharmaceutical manufacturers Eli Lilly and Company and Novo Nordisk.
– The initiative delivers historic price reductions on some of the world’s most popular drugs, impacting millions of Americans struggling with chronic diseases, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity.
Price Reductions for Patients and Taxpayers
The agreements target the two drug classes with the highest annual expenditures in the United States: GLP-1 receptor agonists and insulin.
- Prices via TrumpRx: The monthly price of Ozempic and Wegovy will drop from $1,000 and $1,350, respectively, to $350 when purchased through the TrumpRx program. The price of Zepbound and the investigational drug Orforglipron will fall to an average of $346 per month.
- Insulin and Migraine Relief: Novo Nordisk will provide widely-used insulin products, including NovoLog and Tresiba, for just $35 per month of supply. Eli Lilly will provide Emgality (migraine treatment) at $299 per pen and Trulicity (diabetes medicine) at $389 per month.
II. Expanding Medicare Coverage and Reducing Taxpayer Costs
The price reduction will significantly benefit government programs and expand access for seniors.
- Medicare Savings: The Medicare prices of Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound will be $245—less than half the prices proposed by the previous administration. State Medicaid programs will also access these medications at the same low rates.
- New Access: These low prices will enable Medicare to cover obesity drugs Wegovy and Zepbound for patients with obesity and related comorbidities for the first time. Medicare beneficiaries will pay a copay of just $50 per month.
Rebalancing Global Pharmaceuatcal System
President Trump framed the announcement as a historic opportunity to reverse the obesity epidemic and associated chronic disease crisis. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates the prevalence of obesity among American adults to be 40%, making access to these life-changing medications critical.
The Administration is also taking decisive action to rebalance the global pharmaceutical system.
- The Problem: The United States, with less than five percent of the world’s population, generates roughly 75% of global pharmaceutical profits. Americans pay more than three times the price that other developed nations pay for brand-name drugs.
- The Solution: The agreement requires Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to guarantee Most-Favored-Nation (MFN) prices on all new medicines and provide every State Medicaid program with MFN access on their products.
Investing in American Supply Chains
In parallel with the price cuts, both manufacturers announced massive investments to strengthen domestic manufacturing capacity.
- Novo Nordisk committed an additional $10B investment to strengthen its domestic footprint, including producing the Wegovy tablet end-to-end in the U.S..
- Under President Trump’s leadership, Eli Lilly has announced at least $27B in new U.S. manufacturing investments.
