Shares of Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk dropped Friday, after President Donald Trump mentioned his administration goals to chop the price of model title GLP-1 weight reduction medicine to $150 monthly, a fraction of their present listing worth.
“In London, you’d purchase a sure drug for $130 and even lower than that … $88 as of… a month in the past. And in New York, you pay $1,300 for a similar factor,” Trump mentioned throughout a Thursday afternoon occasion about in vitro fertilization on the White Home. “As an alternative of $1,300 you may be paying about $150 and so they’ll be paying $150 so we’ll pay the identical factor.”
Requested by a reporter what drug he was referring to, Trump replied, “I used to be referring to Ozempic or … the fats loss drug.”
At that time, Facilities for Medicare and Medicaid Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz interjected and careworn that the administration has not but agreed to GLP-1 worth reductions with drugmakers.
“Now we have not negotiated these but … We will be rolling these out over time, the GLP class of medication, which incorporates Ozempic haven’t been negotiated but,” Oz mentioned.
Only a week in the past, Oz had mentioned that the administration was “in the midst of quite a lot of motion” with worth discussions with weight reduction drugmakers.
Eli Lilly shares closed 2% decrease Friday, whereas Novo Nordisk’s inventory fell 3% in U.S. buying and selling. In the meantime, shares of Hims & Hers Well being — which sells less expensive compounded GLP-1s — plunged greater than 15%.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk have been amongst 17 of the biggest U.S. pharmaceutical corporations that acquired letters from the Trump administration following the president’s government order on so-called most-favored nation pricing, demanding that companies deliver U.S. drug costs in keeping with these in different developed nations.
Pfizer and AstraZeneca have signed on to the president’s initiative, hanging drug pricing offers with the administration. However Trump and Oz’s feedback make it clear the administration is seeking to get the load loss drugmakers on board.
$150 GLP-1 can be cheaper than compounders
Whereas demand for weight reduction medicine has grown, worth has remained an impediment for shoppers and employers.
Solely about one in 5 massive employers at the moment provide GLP-1s for weight reduction, in accordance with a brand new survey from the Kaiser Household Basis. Of those that do, two-thirds say the excessive value medicine have had a “important” impression on their prescription drug spending.
Employees who do not get protection via medical health insurance have more and more turned to the money market to purchase the medicine on their very own.
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk promote discounted variations of their diabetes and weight reduction medicines on their direct-to-consumer websites at roughly $500 a month. Telehealth suppliers like Hims & Hers provide compounded variations of GLP-1s for lower than half that worth, wherever between $130 to $200 monthly.
If the administration might deliver the money worth for standard weight reduction medicine like Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy all the way down to $150, that will be aggressive with compounded choices and will have a significant impression on the present money market.
