President Donald Trump achieved one of his key targets in the healthcare sector, following agreements with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk that will see the prices of weight loss drugs slashed for US patients.
Trump has long lamented the higher prices of prescription drug prices in the US compared to other countries, with glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) a key focus of his pricing reforms.
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That goal has now been achieved for weight loss products, with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk signing agreements with the US government to significantly reduce the prices of their popular GLP-1RAs.
Novo’s Wegovy (semaglutide) and Ozempic (semaglutide) will cost $350 per month, a steep discount from the dose-dependent $1,000-$1,350 monthly cost currently. Eli Lilly’s Zepbound (tirzepatide) will cost an average of $346, down from the $1,086 per month now. These price drops are through TrumpRx, the US government’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform that is set to launch in January 2026.
The deals expand access on Medicare and Medicaid, with co-pay prices on the former programme as low as $50 a month, helping to remove a major financial barrier to many US patients.
GlobalData Life Sciences research analyst Cyrus Fan said: “The latest deal with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk is significant given the demand for GLP-1RA drugs in the US and their inclusion for Medicare coverage. This means that millions more patients on Medicare will have access to weight-loss therapies. The inclusion of the weight-loss therapies in Medicare may mean future approved GLP-1RA drugs indicated for weight loss could be covered in government programs.”
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By GlobalDataLilly’s CEO, David Ricks, commented: “Today marks a pivotal moment in US health care policy and a defining milestone for Lilly, made possible through collaboration with the Trump Administration.”
For Trump, this marks a significant win in his ongoing pledge to cut prescription drug prices for US citizens. The President particularly called out weight loss jobs earlier this year, embarking on policy reforms to pressure drugmakers into overhauling medication cost structures.
In a 6 November statement via the White House, Trump said: “In case after case, our citizens pay massively higher prices than other nations pay for the same exact pill, from the same factory, effectively subsidising socialism abroad with skyrocketing prices at home.
“So we would spend tremendous amounts of money in order to provide inexpensive drugs to another country. And when I say the price is different, you can see some examples where the price is beyond anything — four times, five times different.”
Novo did not reveal the prices it will charge in the US, though it said it expects negative “low single-digit impact on global sales growth in 2026” as a result of the agreement. Novo is already battling commercial headwinds amid a loss of market share to Eli Lilly. The Danish drugmaker is also locked in a fierce bidding war for obesity biotech Metsera currently, with offers exceeding $10bn.
“Access has been a consistent headwind to uptake, and we suspect these changes will see volume influxes more than offset pricing concessions,” Citi analysts said in a note.
A significant aspect of the deals with Trump is the inclusion of oral weight loss drugs. Lilly’s orfoglipron and Novo’s oral Wegovy, neither of which are yet approved, will cost $149 at the lowest dose. Weight loss pills are anticipated to be a major fueller of the obesity market beyond what injectable GLP-1RAs have managed to achieve.
Lilly confirmed that it has applied for the Commissioner’s National Priority Voucher for orforglipron. These vouches are part of a new framework by the FDA to accelerate drug approvals with US-centric interests. GlobalData analysts forecast orforglipron sales could reach $11bn in 2031, with Eli Lilly already building several billion-dollar facilities to ramp up production of the pill.
GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
Lilly and Novo become the latest big pharma companies to agree drug pricing deals with the White House against the backdrop of Trump’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) pricing reforms. MFN is a policy framework that would tie US drug prices to the lowest prices in other developed countries.
Pfizer paved the way with the first agreement in September, while AstraZeneca followed soon after in October. Companies have been enticed to shake hands with Trump amid the financial effects of ongoing tariffs. As with Pfizer’s three-year period of tariff immunity, Lilly and Novo stated that their deals with the government also include a three-year period of tariff relief.
