The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted that thanks to the negotiations, Medicare prices for semaglutide products “will decrease significantly beginning in 2027.”
That would also open the door to lower prices for competing obesity drugs like Eli Lilly’s Zepbound. Pharmacy benefit managers, who negotiate drug prices, will have more leverage to demand lower prices closer to what the government pays for semaglutide. If the government expanded coverage of obesity drugs, the amount Medicare would spend for each patient who took one of them would drop by about a third in 2027, the CBO predicted.
That would slow the growth of government spending on obesity drugs, even as more people on Medicare began using them.
New prices for the 10 drugs in the first round of price negotiations were announced last summer. These prices will take effect next year.
Pharmacists were relieved that those cuts were not deeper.
Drugs selected for the second round of Medicare price negotiations
The rates will take effect in 2027.
1. Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovyfor diabetes and obesity
2. Trelegy Elliptafor lung diseases
3. Xtandi, for prostate cancer
4. Pomalystfor blood cancer
5. Ibrancefor breast cancer
6. Ofevfor lung diseases
7. Linzessfor gastrointestinal diseases
8. Calculationfor blood cancers
9. Austedo and Austedo XRfor neurological diseases
10. Breo Elliptafor lung diseases
11. Tradjentafor diabetes
12. Xifaxanfor liver and gastrointestinal problems
13. Vraylarfor depression
14. Janumet and Janumet XRfor diabetes
15. Otezlafor inflammatory conditions
