The federal government announced new Medicare drug-price negotiations that will lower prices on 15 medicines beginning in 2027. Among the biggest cuts, Medicare will pay about 71% less for Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, Wegovy and the diabetes pill Rybelsus—treatments for obesity and Type 2 diabetes that have had list prices near $1,000 a month.
The negotiated discounts across the 15 drugs vary, from roughly 38% for Austedo (Huntington’s disease) to about 85% for Janumet (Type 2 diabetes). CMS says that if these lower prices had been in effect in 2024, Medicare would have saved roughly $12 billion.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. framed the moves as fulfilling a directive to reduce health care costs. Experts say the second round of negotiations produced larger savings than the first in part because of the mix of drugs selected and lessons learned from the initial round. Drugs were chosen under criteria in the Inflation Reduction Act: no generic or biosimilar competition, high Medicare spending, and being on the market for several years.
The reduced prices for Ozempic and Wegovy follow a separate Nov. 6 agreement announced by the Trump administration with Novo Nordisk, aimed at getting companies to voluntarily lower U.S. prices to match those abroad. That deal set a price of $245 a month for Ozempic and Wegovy, while the newly announced Medicare-negotiated price is $274 a month for Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus—an inconsistency that observers found puzzling. Novo Nordisk said it awaits CMS guidance on how pricing and coverage will work and emphasized its support for broader access while expressing concerns about government price setting.
Advocacy groups welcomed the news: AARP called the announcement a significant step toward lowering prescription drug costs and said the negotiated prices will provide meaningful relief for many Medicare beneficiaries, who still face copays and coinsurance despite taxpayer-funded program savings.
