Trump admin announces GLP-1 deal with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk

President Donald Trump last week announced a deal with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to reduce the price of GLP-1 obesity drugs to as low as $149 a month, potentially expanding access to the treatments.

As part of the deal, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly will sell their medications — Wegovy and Zepbound — to Medicare for $149 a month for the lowest dose and $245 a month for larger doses. The drugs will be offered at discounted rates through the administration's TrumpRx website, which will go live next year.

Consumers will be able to purchase the drugs directly for an average price of $350 or less each month, which would ultimately amount to $245 per month over two years, officials said. Currently, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly offer their GLP-1s drugs directly to consumers for around $500 per month.

According to administration officials, around 10% of Medicare beneficiaries will be eligible for coverage under the new plan based on their BMI and preexisting conditions. Patients would have a co-pay of $50 per month, effective mid-2026.

"Until now, neither of these two popular drugs have been covered by Medicare for weight loss, and only rarely by Medicaid," Trump said during a press conference in the Oval Office. "That ends starting today … This will improve the health of millions and millions of Americans."

Rena Conti, a health economist and associate professor at Boston University, said she expects this deal will impact GLP-1 prices going forward.

"We would expect commercial payers to demand to use these posted prices as ceiling prices," Conti said.

In exchange for lowering the costs of their GLP-1 drugs, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly will receive expedited reviews of new drugs from FDA.

(Diamond, et al., Washington Post, 11/6; Robbins, et al., New York Times, 11/6; Monaco, MedPage Today, 11/6; Goldman, Axios, 11/6; Gilbert, Washington Post, 11/7)

Trump says ACA subsidies should be sent directly to consumers

President Donald Trump in a post on Truth Social on Saturday said that money being spent on subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) should instead be sent directly to consumers.

"I am recommending to Senate Republicans that the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars currently being sent to money sucking Insurance Companies in order to save the bad Healthcare provided by ObamaCare, BE SENT DIRECTLY TO THE PEOPLE SO THAT THEY CAN PURCHASE THEIR OWN, MUCH BETTER, HEALTHCARE, and have money left over," Trump said in the post.

Trump didn't provide any additional details; however, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said in a post on X that he's "writing the bill right now," and Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) has previously proposed redirecting ACA subsidies into pre-funded federal flexible spending accounts. 

Trump says he'll send out $2,000 tariff dividends to everyone except 'high-income people'

President Donald Trump on Sunday said that his administration will pay a "dividend of at least $2,000 a person" to all Americans except for "high-income people" that will come from money collected through tariffs.

"People that are against Tariffs are FOOLS! We are now the Richest, Most Respected Country In the World, With Almost No Inflation, and A Record Stock Market Price. 401k's are Highest EVER," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

In an interview with ABC News Sunday, Department of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he hasn't talked to Trump about the dividend plan but added that it "could come in lots of forms, in lots of ways."

"You know, it could be just the tax decreases that we are seeing on the president's agenda — you know, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on Social Security, deductibility of auto loans," Bessent said.

According to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan nonprofit that studies fiscal policy, if enacted, Trump's plan would cost the United States around $600 billion a year, almost double what the country is expected to generate from new tariffs on imports.

(Murray, ABC News, 11/9; Zahn, ABC News, 11/10; Garrison, USA Today, 11/10)