(NewsNation) ā President Donald Trump made an announcement on Thursday regarding the price of weight loss drugs.
“”A great day for American health and health care,” Trump said.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk make popular weight loss drugs, but can come with a high price for consumers. The president announced that Zepbound and Wegovy at most-favored-nation rates.
Ozempic and Wegovy, for example, would drop to $350 a month when purchased directly, without using insurance.
Future weight loss drugs will also be made available at $149 a month. Other drugs made by the two companies will also be offered at the lower, most-favored-nations price for Medicaid and Trump Rx.
Those include migraine medication Emgality, which would cost $299 per pen when bought directly through Trump RX, diabetes medication Trulicity at $389 a month and insulin products NovoLog and Tresiba at $35 per month..
As with previous deals, the price deals only apply to Medicaid and direct-to-consumer sales on the Trump Rx website, expected to be launched by the end of the year.
The agreement does not apply to private insurance purchased through the marketplace or offered by employers, which the majority of Americans have.
The president announced that Medicaid and Medicare will also cover weight loss drugs.
“Americans will lose 135 billion pounds by the midterms, I don’t measure it in pounds; I measure it in lives,” said Mehmet Oz, administrator of Medicaid and Medicare Centers.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also announced that new food guidelines will be released in December to promote healthier lifestyles.
The press conference ended early after one of the attendees fainted in the Oval Office.
Lowering prescription drug prices has been a focus of Trump’s. He previously announced two deals lowering prices for Medicaid patients and those who buy directly from a government website.
Trump has touted agreements with Pfizer and AstraZeneca, announcing that Medicaid would be given “most favored nations” pricing on medications and that some prescription drugs would be offered at a discount directly to consumers.
Noteably, those deals do not include Medicare patients or those who are privately insured through an employer, and it is unclear whether drug companies will also offer favored pricing to those plans.
The exact list of drugs to be offered for direct-to-consumer sale has not been announced, and the discounts range from 40% to 90%, which could still leave the cost of some specialty or high-end drugs in the thousands of dollars per month.
