Shares of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk dropped Friday, after President Donald Trump said his administration goals to chop the fee of brand name name GLP-1 weight reduction drugs to $150 per 30 days, a fraction of their current list price.
“In London, you’d buy a certain drug for $130 and even lower than that … $88 as of… a month ago. And in Recent York, you pay $1,300 for a similar thing,” Trump said during a Thursday afternoon event about in vitro fertilization on the White House. “As a substitute of $1,300 you will be paying about $150 and so they’ll be paying $150 so we’ll pay the identical thing.”
Asked by a reporter what drug he was referring to, Trump replied, “I used to be referring to Ozempic or … the fat loss drug.”
At that time, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz interjected and stressed that the administration has not yet agreed to GLP-1 price reductions with drugmakers.
“Now we have not negotiated those yet … We will be rolling these out over time, the GLP category of medication, which incorporates Ozempic haven’t been negotiated yet,” Oz said.
Just every week ago, Oz had said that the administration was “in the course of a variety of motion” with price discussions with weight reduction drugmakers.
Eli Lilly shares closed 2% lower Friday, while Novo Nordisk’s stock fell 3% in U.S. trading. Meanwhile, shares of Hims & Hers Health — which sells less expensive compounded GLP-1s — plunged greater than 15%.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk were amongst 17 of the most important U.S. pharmaceutical corporations that received letters from the Trump administration following the president’s executive order on so-called most-favored nation pricing, demanding that companies bring U.S. drug prices according to those in other developed nations.
Pfizer and AstraZeneca have signed on to the president’s initiative, striking drug pricing deals with the administration. But Trump and Oz’s comments make it clear the administration is seeking to get the load loss drugmakers on board.
$150 GLP-1 can be cheaper than compounders
While demand for weight reduction drugs has grown, price has remained an obstacle for consumers and employers.
Only about one in five large employers currently offer GLP-1s for weight reduction, in keeping with a brand new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Of those that do, two-thirds say the high cost drugs have had a “significant” impact on their prescription drug spending.
Staff who do not get coverage through medical health insurance have increasingly turned to the money market to purchase the drugs on their very own.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk sell discounted versions of their diabetes and weight reduction medications on their direct-to-consumer sites at roughly $500 a month. Telehealth providers like Hims & Hers offer compounded versions of GLP-1s for lower than half that price, anywhere between $130 to $200 per 30 days.
If the administration could bring the money price for popular weight reduction drugs like Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy all the way down to $150, that may be competitive with compounded options and will have a significant impact on the present money market.
