Obesity drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy are seen as major breakthroughs for those with chronic diseases like obesity and diabetes, which disproportionately affect Black Americans.
The White House announced agreements with two of the nation’s top pharmaceutical manufacturers to lower prices for weight loss medications. The deals would expand access for millions, including Black Americans who suffer health disparities like obesity and diabetes.
President Donald Trump unveiled the agreements with Eli Lilly and Company and Novo Nordisk inside the Oval Office on Thursday. The White House is touting the deals as the “most significant actions ever taken by our federal government to lower prescription drug prices” and stated that they would “dramatically reduce the prices Americans pay for some of the world’s most popular drugs.”
Several weight loss drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbound will be significantly cheaper for Americans enrolled in Medicaid and Medicare and for patients who pay for the drugs out of pocket through TrumpRx, the president’s newly-launched direct-to-consumer website, where patients can purchase prescription drugs.
“This is a triumph for American patients that will save lives and improve the health of millions and millions of Americans,” President Trump said at the White House on Thursday.
According to the White House, prices of Ozempic and Wegovy will fall from $1,000 and $1,350 per month, respectively, to $350 when purchased through TrumpRx. The prices of Zepbound and Orforglipron, if approved, will fall from $1,086 per month to an average of $346. If the FDA approves the Wegovy pill or certain similar “GLP-1” drugs, initial doses are expected to cost as low as $150.
Black Americans, who have higher rates of chronic disease and are disproportionately uninsured, stand to benefit greatly from the White House’s new action on weight loss drugs. Due to insurance access and other factors, many Black Americans have been left out of the rise of obesity medication.
“We know that African Americans have the highest percentage of patients who are living with obesity…Unfortunately, the majority of patients who could really benefit do not have access to these medications,” said Dr. Michael G. Knight, a clinical associate professor of medicine at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Knight told theGrio that weight loss drugs are “highly effective in treating obesity.”
Knight explained that Medicare does not cover obesity medications unless you have a specific medical condition, and even then, the cost is high. Similarly, most Medicaid plans do not cover weight-loss drugs. But by lowering the cost of the drugs, Knight said it will likely lead to more Medicaid plans at the state level providing coverage for patients. Black Americans make up nearly 21% of Medicaid enrollees.
“Almost all Medicaid patients are in underserved communities, and a large percentage of them are communities of color…so that’s going to open up access,” he told theGrio.
For patients purchasing the drugs out of pocket, the reduced costs are significant.
“If you don’t [have the money], you can’t get it treated, which is not the way that we treat anything else in medicine,” said Knight. “The reason we have these government-funded programs is so that your access to high-quality health care is not fully determined by how much money you have, but when it comes to these types of drugs that are not covered, it does.”
As for determining how many Americans will benefit from these new agreements to reduce the cost of obesity drugs, Knight said the devil is in the details.
“For Medicaid and Medicare, specifically, it does say for eligible patients. Does that mean [they] have to have obesity and cardiovascular disease and sleep apnea, which, again, does not fully prioritize the disease of obesity,” he explained. “Obesity, in and of itself, is a chronic condition that deserves treatment, and so we shouldn’t just wait for someone to have had a heart attack or stroke to get treatment for the root cause of those issues …which is what we do now.”
Overall, Knight views these new actions taken by the Trump administration as beneficial to Black populations.
“We still need to understand the details of eligibility, and we still need to move towards a space where any patient who is living with obesity has access to highly effective treatment,” he said.
