The American president, Donald Trump, announced agreements Thursday with pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to reduce prices for weight loss drugs used in diabetes and obesity treatments.
Both companies “have agreed to offer their most popular weight loss drug GLP-1,” Trump said, “at drastic discounts.”
The new generation of appetite suppressant medications using the GLP-1 molecule has gained widespread popularity due to its effectiveness in helping people lose weight. The price of one month of treatment with these medications in USA can exceed $1,000.
This agreement promoted by the White House will reduce the costs of initial oral doses of GLP-1 to around $150 for certain groups of people, a figure that a senior US official said is “about one-ninth of the current price.”
This price will apply to those who are on Medicare, the retiree health program, the Medicaid social security program, or through the TrumpRx website, which is a newly launched platform for consumers, the official added. Trump has made efforts to lower drug prices one of the focal points of his second term.
