Eli Lilly Novo Nordisk Stock Falls on Trump’s GLP-1 Price Comments

Shares of Eli Lilly And Novo Nordisk The price was cut Friday after President Donald Trump said his administration wanted to cut the cost of brand-name GLP-1 weight-loss drugs to $150 a month, a fraction of their current list price.

“In London you would buy a certain drug for $130 and even less… $88 as of… a month ago. And in New York you pay $1,300 for the same thing,” Trump said during an event Thursday afternoon at the White House about in vitro fertilization. “Instead of $1,300, you pay about $150 and they pay $150, so we pay the same.”

When asked by a reporter which drug he was referring to, Trump replied: “I was referring to Ozempic or…the fat loss drug.”

At that point, the Administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, Dr. Mehmet Oz, emphasizing that the administration has not yet agreed to GLP-1 price cuts with drug manufacturers.

“We have not negotiated these yet… We will introduce these over time, the GLP drug category, which Ozempic is a part of, has not been negotiated yet,” Oz said.

Just a week ago, Oz said the government was “in the middle of a lot of action” with price negotiations with manufacturers of weight-loss drugs.

Shares of Eli Lilly closed 2% lower on Friday, while shares of Novo Nordisk fell 3% in U.S. trading. Shares are now available from Health for him and her – which sells the much cheaper composite GLP-1 – plunged more than 15%.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk were among the 17 largest U.S. pharmaceutical companies to receive letters from the Trump administration after the president issued a MFN pricing executive order requiring companies to bring drug prices in the U.S. in line with those in other developed countries.

Pfizer And AstraZeneca have joined the President’s initiative and reached agreements on drug prices with the government. But Trump and Oz’s comments make it clear that the administration is trying to bring weight-loss drug makers on board.

$150 GLP-1 would be cheaper than Compounder

While demand for weight loss drugs has increased, price remains a barrier for consumers and employers.

According to a new Kaiser Family Foundation survey, only about one in five large employers currently offer GLP-1 for weight loss. Of those who do, two-thirds say the expensive drugs have had a “significant” impact on their prescription drug spending.

Workers who do not have health insurance coverage are increasingly turning to the cash market to purchase the medications themselves.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk sell discounted versions of their diabetes and weight-loss medications for about $500 a month on their direct-to-consumer websites. Telemedicine providers like Hims & Hers offer compounded versions of GLP-1 for less than half that price, anywhere from $130 to $200 per month.

If the government could lower the cash price of popular weight-loss drugs like Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy to $150, that would be competitive with compounded options and could have a significant impact on the current cash market.