Weight loss drugs like Ozempic may be up for Medicare price negotiations — will Trump support it?
Medicare’s drug pricing negotiations — the first of their kind in the United States, passed under President Joe Biden — face an uncertain future in the incoming Trump administration.
Medicare’s drug pricing negotiations — the first of their kind in the United States, passed under President Joe Biden — face an uncertain future in the incoming Trump administration.
The deliberations, as mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, are meant to help people on Medicare afford their medications by allowing the government program to directly haggle over prices with drugmakers.
Last year, Medicare reached agreements to lower prices on 10 drugs. The program is supposed to release a list of 15 more prescription drugs selected for the next round of negotiations by Feb. 1. Semaglutide, the active ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy, may top the list of medications. Other possible candidates include the breast cancer drug Ibrance, Trelegy, an asthma treatment, and Tradjenta, for diabetes.
Although ending the program won’t be easy since it requires authorization from Congress, recent moves by President-elect Donald Trump’s allies may not bode well for its future, said Juliette Cubanski, deputy director of the Medicare policy program at KFF, a nonprofit group that researches health policy issues.
“We do know in the last Congress legislation was introduced by some Republicans to repeal the entire Inflation Reduction Act and get rid of the drug price negotiation program,” Cubanski said. “Wiping the negotiation program off the books was also featured in Project 2025 and other Republican proposals we’ve seen in the past.
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