United States: In a major move to lower healthcare costs, the Biden administration has added popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy to the list of medications Medicare can now negotiate directly with manufacturers.
Announced on Friday, this new step could lead to significant savings for consumers. Along with 13 other drugs, Ozempic and Wegovy will be covered under Medicare Part-D for price negotiations whole as part of the Inflation Reduction Act passed in 2022.
They will happen this year before implementation of affected prices in 2027, as per a fact sheet by the Centers of Medicare & Medicaid Services on the announcement.
“Over 5.3 million beneficiaries with Medicare Part D coverage who were under our drug reimbursement system used these categories of drugs for cancer, type II diabetes, asthma, and many other ailments for the period from November 1, 2023, to October 31, 2024, which is the relevant period we used in the definition of which drugs were eligible for negotiation for this second cycle.”
Besides, other prescription drugs for negotiation include Ozempic, Wegovy, Calquence, Trelegy Ellipta, Rybelsus, Linzess and Otezla.
“These selected drugs constituted approximately USD41 billion in total gross covered prescription drug costs under Medicare Part D or almost 14% during that period,” Biden administration official said in a briefing with reporters on Thursday.
This is in addition to the 10 announced and negotiated drugs before.
The outcome of those negotiations was made public in August. The negotiated prices will begin in January 2026 and will reduce Medicare patients’ out of pocket expenses by a total of USD1.5bn, officials said.
That extra USD76 billion figure officials informed the reporters that the 15 drugs that was announced on Friday and the initial 10 medicines take up one-third of Medicare Part D spending on prescription drugs.
Currently, while drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy are not indicated for obesity, they can be used under Medicare only for diabetes and heart disease treatments.
When there is no insurance the cost of Ozempic and Wegovy can be more than USD1,000 a month.
Ozempic is only officially used to treat Type 2 diabetes in the United States but some physicians use it to induce weigh loss as the FDA allows.