Nov. 6, 2025
CNBC reported today that President Donald Trump announced deals with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly toslash the prices of some of their obesity drugs, including upcoming pills, in a landmark effort to expand access to the costly blockbuster treatment.
The agreements will cut prices of so-called GLP-1 drugs for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries in 2026 and offer the treatments directly to consumers at a discount on a website the Trump administration is launching in January called TrumpRx.gov.
That means Medicare will start covering obesity drugs for some patients for the first time starting mid-2026, a long-awaited move that could broaden the market for the medicines and spur more private insurers to cover them. Certain Medicare patients will pay a copay of $50 per month for all approved uses of injectable and oral GLP-1 drugs, including diabetes and obesity treatment.Starting doses of upcoming obesity pills from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, pending approvals, will be $145 per month for everyone getting them through Medicare, Medicaid or TrumpRx, a senior administration official who declined to be named told reporters during a briefing Thursday. Novo Nordisk’s oral version of its obesity injection Wegovy could enter the market by year-end, while Eli Lilly’s pill orforglipron could launch next year.
Starting doses of existing injections like Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound will be $350 per month on TrumpRX, but will “trend down” to $245 per month over a two-year period, another senior administration official said during the briefing.
“This is the biggest drug in our country, and that’s why this is the most important of all the [most favored nation] announcements we’ve made,” Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during the briefing. “This is going to have the biggest impact on the American people. All Americans, even those who are not on Medicaid, Medicare, are going to be able to get the same price for their drugs, for their GLP-1s.”
Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have agreed to cut the price Medicare pays for GLP-1s it already covers for diabetes and other indications, along with those drugs for obesity, to $245 per month. The companies agreed to extend lower government pricing for their GLP-1 drugs – $245 per month across all other non-starting doses – to all 50 Medicaid programs for all covered uses. States will have to opt into those prices, meaning some may not.
But Medicare coverage could have a bigger impact on who gets the drugs because the program covers about 66 million people, and is the primary source of insurance for people ages 65 and above. The new obesity drug coverage will be enabled through a pilot program designed to cover a majority of beneficiaries under Medicare Part D, which are the program’s prescription drug plans.
LEARN MORE About The Market for Medical Weight Loss Programs
Marketdata LLC has published anew 154-page analysis of the U.S. weight loss market, entitled: “The U.S. Medical Weight Loss Market: The Impact of GLP-1 Drugs on Doctors, Hospitals, Clinics and Franchises”, February 2025. This report presents a complete picture of the medical weight loss market in the United States, with the inter-relationships between competing MDs, clinics, surgeons, commercial weight loss companies and pharmaceutical firms.
At no other time in the U.S. weight loss market history has one product so dominated the market as have the new GLP-1 weight loss drugs. American dieters have flocked to them, shunning commercial weight loss programs such as Weight Watchers, Medifast, as well as retail and MLM meal replacements.
Demand soared in 2023 and 2024 for Ozempic, Wegovy, Saxenda, Mounjaro and Zepbound — with more new drugs coming in the next few years.
The booming market for GLP-1 drugs has attracted physicians, nurses, dieticians, telemedicine services, medical weight loss franchises, compounding pharmacies, and entrepreneurs – all looking to cash in. However, the party may soon be over for the compounders, as the FDA declared and end to the shortage of the major drugs.
Some Report Findings:
- The value of the U.S. medical weight loss market is estimated to have more than tripled since 2019, to $33.8 billion in 2024. Average annual growth of 12% is forecast through 2028.
- The prescription obesity drugs market soared from $5.0 billion in 2022 to $26.4 billion by 2024, due to the high demand for new GLP-1 drugs. More than 8% of Americans are now estimated to be using them.
- The number of weight loss surgeries has declined 25% since 2022, to 211,000 procedures, as Americans opted for the new drugs instead. This market segment is worth $5.29 billion.
- Hospitals have had a mixed record with weight loss programs. Only 29% of the nation’s hospitals (about 1,400) provide some form of weight loss program – surgery or a non-surgical program.
- Medical weight loss programs represented 11.7% of the total U.S. weight loss market in 2022, but this share is forecast to triple to 36% by 2028.
- Prescription weight loss drugs have stolen major market share from commercial weight loss companies, the meal replacements market, health clubs, the bariatric surgery market, and more.
- The top 11 medical weight loss franchises and regional chains are estimated to generate $264 million in system-wide sales annually. Most franchises are not growing.
Purchase This Report
The report may be purchased at the Marketdata website’s store. Price: $1,495. Or call: 813-971-8080. Table of Contents available, see home page, link for Diet Market – Our Specialty.