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Drug negotiations Maker of weight-loss drugs to ask Trump to pause price negotiations: Report The next 15 drugs up for negotiation will be released soon and may include a GLP-1. Beth Mole Jan 14, 2025 5:26 pm | 35 An Eli Lilly & Co. Zepbound injection pen arranged in Brooklyn, New York on March 28, 2024. Credit: Getty | helby Knowles An Eli Lilly & Co. Zepbound injection pen arranged in Brooklyn, New York on March 28, 2024. Credit: Getty | helby Knowles Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreEli Lilly and other drugmakers are reportedly planning to urge the Trump administration to pause Medicare drug-price negotiations that were put in place by the Biden administration's Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)."They need to fix [the IRA]," Eli Lilly CEO Dave Ricks told Bloomberg at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.The results of the first round of IRA negotiations, announced in August, saw the list prices of 10 high-cost drugs get slashed by as much as 79 percent. Collectively, the negotiated prices are estimated to save seniors $1.5 billion in out-of-pocket costs in 2026, when the prices go into effect. The savings will likely be well received, given that KFF polling has found that over a quarter of Americans struggle to afford prescription medications, and 31 percent say they haven't taken medicines as prescribed due to costs.Nevertheless, drugmakers have made no secret that they loathe negotiating lower prices. The pharmaceutical industry has filed several lawsuits, claiming the negotiations are unconstitutional. So far, the legal fights have been unsuccessful.Now, the next list of 15 drugs up for negotiation is scheduled to be released by February 1, and experts have speculated that the Biden administration may release them before the Trump administration comes into office on January 20. Moreover, the list of 15 is expected to include the blockbuster drug semaglutide, the GLP-1 class drug behind the brand name weight-loss and diabetes drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, made by Novo Nordisk. That would be bad news for Lilly, which makes competing GLP-1 drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro.Popular prescriptionsFor now, Medicare does not cover drugs prescribed specifically for weight loss, but it will cover GLP-1 class drugs if they're prescribed for other conditions, such as Type 2 diabetes. Wegovy, for example, is covered if it is prescribed to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke in adults with either obesity or overweight. But, in November, the Biden administration proposed reinterpreting Medicare prescription-coverage rules to allow for coverage of "anti-obesity medications."Such a move is reportedly part of the argument Lilly's CEO plans to bring to the Trump administration. Rather than using drug price negotiations to reduce health care costs, Ricks aims to play up the potential to reduce long-term health care costs by improving people's overall health with coverage of GLP-1 drugs now. This argument would presumably be targeted at Mehmet Oz, the TV presenter and heart surgeon Trump has tapped to run the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services."My argument to Mehmet Oz is that if you want to protect Medicare costs in 10 years, have [the Affordable Care Act] and Medicare plans list these drugs now," Ricks said to Bloomberg. "We know so much about how much cost savings there will be downstream in heart disease and other conditions."An October report from the Congressional Budget Office strongly disputed that claim, however. The CBO estimated that the direct cost of Medicare coverage for anti-obesity drugs between 2026 and 2034 would be nearly $39 billion, while the savings from improved health would total just a little over $3 billion, for a net cost to US taxpayers of about $35.5 billion.Beth MoleSenior Health ReporterBeth MoleSenior Health Reporter Beth is Ars Technicas Senior Health Reporter. Beth has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and attended the Science Communication program at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She specializes in covering infectious diseases, public health, and microbes. 35 Comments