A federal announcement says Medicare has secured lower negotiated prices for 15 major drugs that will take effect in 2027. The program, which covers more than 50 million seniors, will get a 71% discount on Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus — widely used treatments for obesity and Type 2 diabetes that currently have list prices of about $1,000 a month.
The negotiated reductions span other conditions as well, including asthma, breast cancer and leukemia. CMS reports discounts ranging from 38% for Austedo (Huntington’s disease) to 85% for Janumet (Type 2 diabetes). Officials say the new prices would have saved Medicare roughly $12 billion if they had been in place in 2024.
“This is more savings than the first round, but a lot of that has to do with the nature of the drugs being negotiated this year and probably some learning from experience,” says Dr. Benjamin Rome, a health policy researcher at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. The drugs chosen for negotiation met statutory criteria: no generic or biosimilar competition, high Medicare spending, and time on the market.
The negotiations are the second batch conducted since the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 ended a 20-year ban on Medicare price negotiations. Negotiations for these 15 drugs concluded at the end of October.
The lower prices for Ozempic and Wegovy follow a separate Nov. 6 agreement the administration reached with manufacturer Novo Nordisk as part of a broader effort to get drugmakers to lower U.S. prices. That earlier deal set a price of $245 a month for Ozempic and Wegovy; the negotiated Medicare price announced this week is $274 a month for Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus. “It’s not clear why Novo [Nordisk] would promise a different price in two different venues,” Rome says. Novo Nordisk said it looks forward to “additional clarity from CMS on how pricing and coverage will work” and reiterated concerns about government price setting while expressing commitment to affordable access.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. released a statement: “President Trump directed us to stop at nothing to lower health care costs for the American people. As we work to Make America Healthy Again, we will use every tool at our disposal to deliver affordable health care to seniors.”
AARP welcomed the results. “Today’s announcement marks yet another significant next step forward in our long-standing efforts to lower prescription drug prices,” said AARP CEO Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan, adding that negotiated prices will bring meaningful relief to millions of people on Medicare.