President Donald Trump hailed his deal to slash the price of blockbuster weight loss drugs as a game changer, promising to make Wegovy and Zepbound more affordable for millions of Americans.
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\nHowever, major gaps in the plan could blunt its impact, drug policy experts say: Some of the drugs the administration has promised discounts on haven\u2019t been approved yet by the Food and Drug Administration; the lower prices for people paying out of pocket only appear to apply to the lowest doses of the drugs; and the deal doesn\u2019t expand Medicare coverage to people seeking treatment for weight loss alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a situation where we have more questions than answers,\u201d said Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the Medicare policy program at KFF, a nonpartisan health policy research group. \u201cBased on what we didn\u2019t hear, that suggests to me that there\u2019s a lot that the administration itself hasn\u2019t even ironed out as of yet.\u201d
\n\u201cIt just feels,\u201d she added, \u201ca little bit too squishy right now.\u201d <\/p>\n
The announcement marks one of the most ambitious efforts yet to tackle the high cost of weight loss drugs in the U.S. Wegovy and Zepbound carry list prices above $1,000 a month, a cost that both Republicans and Democrats have criticized as far too high, especially compared with what other countries pay.
\nAdministration officials say there\u2019s still time to iron out details before the lower prices take effect. The lower prices that will be available through the administration\u2019s self-pay platform, TrumpRx, aren\u2019t expected to go live until the end of the year, and the Medicare and Medicaid changes won\u2019t roll out until mid-2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the administration deserves credit for continuing to try to push the envelope on finding ways to lower prescription drug prices in the U.S.,\u201d Cubanski said. She said KFF polling shows that health care costs, including prescription drugs, are a top concern for Americans.
\nArt Caplan, the head of the division of medical ethics at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City, said the deal, while ambitious, lacks crucial details.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s just murky as to how this will take shape, how the programs will work,\u201d Caplan said. \u201cYou can\u2019t really tell from what\u2019s going on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several forms of the drugs included in the deal haven\u2019t yet received FDA approval. That includes oral versions of the weight loss drugs \u2014 which are still under development or FDA review \u2014 and Eli Lilly\u2019s new multidose injection pens, which haven\u2019t been approved but the drugmaker says are the versions included in the pricing agreement.
\nLawrence Gostin, director of the O\u2019Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University, said that makes the administration\u2019s promises premature, since those lower prices can\u2019t take effect until the products are on the market.
\n\u201cIt is reckless to negotiate pricing deals on products which the FDA have not yet approved as safe and effective,\u201d Gostin said. \u201cThe administration is getting way out ahead of its own safety agency.\u201d
\nAn oral version of Wegovy, from Novo Nordisk, is being reviewed by the FDA. A decision is expected in the coming weeks.
\nA multidose version of Zepbound is under review by the FDA, Lilly said. The company hasn’t submitted its weight loss pill, orforglipron, to the agency yet.
\nLilly CEO David Ricks told NBC News\u2019 Tom Llamas on \u201cTop Story\u201d that the FDA would review the pill quickly. \u201cAs part of the deal, they\u2019ve agreed to give us an expedited approval,\u201d Ricks said.<\/p>\n
The White House said that both the pills and the injection pens will be available for discounted prices for people who pay out of pocket.
\nStarting doses of weight loss pills will cost $149 for a month\u2019s supply, and the shots will cost an average of $350 for a month\u2019s supply, the White House said. The price of the injections is expected to fall to about $250 within two years, it said.
\nBut people may end up paying more.
\nWhen people start on a weight loss drug, they start with the lowest dose possible \u2014 the starting dose \u2014 to allow the body to get used to the drug. Over the course of several months, however, they increase the dose until they get to a dose that\u2019s effective for weight loss. Wegovy comes in five doses and Zepbound comes in six, with the most weight loss seen at the highest doses.
\nAdministration officials said the starting doses of GLP-1 pills will cost $149 a month, but did not say what higher doses would be.
\nFor the injections, the exact White House language was vague: The shots will initially have a \u201cweighted average\u201d price of $350 a month. Lilly, however, said Zepbound will be available at the lowest dose for $299 a month, with additional doses priced up to $449. A spokesperson for Novo Nordisk didn\u2019t say whether doses would have different prices, but said it plans to publish an update on costs \u201cin the coming weeks.\u201d
\nThat means patients paying through TrumpRx could end up paying far more than the administration\u2019s advertised prices \u2014 especially if patients don\u2019t stay on the lowest doses for long, Caplan said. <\/p>\n
As part of the deal, Lilly and Novo Nordisk will charge Medicare and Medicaid $245 for a month\u2019s supply of the shots, a move that will likely provide savings for the programs. Medicare enrollees will have their costs capped at $50 a month. Medicaid enrollees often don\u2019t have copays.
\nBut not everyone on Medicare or Medicaid is eligible.
\nUnder the deal, Medicare will continue to cover the weight loss drugs for people who are overweight or obese and have another qualifying condition, such as heart or kidney disease. The agreement doesn\u2019t expand coverage to people using the drugs for weight loss alone. Medicare, by law, is barred from covering weight loss drugs, Cubanski, of KFF, said.
\nThe lack of expanded coverage is a significant omission, said Stacie Dusetzina, a health policy professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.
\nMedicare is one of the largest payers in the country, and without broader coverage, millions of patients will remain priced out even as the administration touts lower costs.
\n\u201cYou would have to change the law or go through several regulatory steps to be able to offer coverage outside of an already covered indication,\u201d Dusetzina said.
\nA White House spokesperson said the administration wanted to first lower prices for patients who would most benefit, such as those with risk factors associated with obesity. <\/p>\n
The deal to slash the price of weight loss drugs has been hailed as a game changer, but it lacks crucial details and has several gaps that could blunt its impact. The administration has promised discounts on drugs that haven\u2019t yet received FDA approval, and the lower prices for people paying out of pocket only appear to apply to the lowest doses of the drugs. Additionally, the deal doesn\u2019t expand Medicare coverage to people seeking treatment for weight loss alone. While the administration deserves credit for trying to lower prescription drug prices, the deal is still murky, and it remains to be seen how it will play out.<\/p>\n
Introduction to Trump’s Weight Loss Drug Deal President Donald Trump hailed his deal to slash the price of blockbuster weight loss drugs as a game changer, promising to make Wegovy and Zepbound more affordable for millions of Americans. However, major gaps in the plan could blunt its impact, drug policy experts say: Some of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":22178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22176","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-wellness"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i1.wp.com\/media.nbcmiami.com\/2025\/11\/donald-trump-wegovy-getty.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&fit=1500,846&w=1500&resize=1500,845&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22176"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22176"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22179,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22176\/revisions\/22179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/miami\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}