Novo, Lilly Shares Drop as Trump Guarantees $150 Ozempic
President Donald Trump promised from the White Home Thursday that Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic will value about $150 when he and Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Companies Administrator Mehmet Oz are performed negotiating with the corporate. The assertion despatched the Danish pharma’s shares sliding 3% because the markets opened Friday morning.
Rival Eli Lilly additionally declined over 2.5%. BMO Capital Markets disregarded the president’s threats as “aggressive posturing,” noting that there must date been no precise negotiations carried out for GLP-1 medicine, as Oz later clarified.
In his remarks throughout a press convention saying a negotiation with EMD Serono to low cost sure fertility medicine for in vitro fertilization, Trump repeated a well-known story about studying {that a} widespread weight reduction drug prices about $130 in London however $1,300 over in New York.
Later, when requested by a reporter, Trump confirmed that he was speaking in regards to the “fats loss drug,” naming it as Ozempic. Semaglutide is marketed as Ozempic for diabetes and Wegovy for weight reduction; nonetheless, Ozempic has additionally been prescribed off label for weight reduction.
Trump promised that his administration would convey Ozempic’s U.S. value right down to about $150 out of pocket by way of Most Favored Nation drug pricing negotiations.
Oz then stepped to the microphone to make clear that these negotiations had not but occurred. “We have now not negotiated these but. We’re going to be rolling these out over time. The GLP-1 class of medication, which incorporates Ozempic, haven’t been negotiated but,” Oz mentioned.
Neither Trump nor Oz offered a timeline or confirmed that negotiations particularly with Novo are taking place.
“I believe these are going to return down fairly quick,” Trump mentioned, referring to the worth of Novo’s merchandise. Once more, Oz stepped up: “The president will probably be proud of these outcomes, and till he’s, we’re not going to shut these negotiations.”
‘Any Method the Wind Blows’
The White Home was the setting prior to now few weeks for 2 of Novo and Lilly’s friends, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, to announce MFN agreements with the Trump administration. Each corporations’ CEOs appeared with Trump and his well being cupboard to announce that a few of their medicine can be listed on an as-yet-created web site referred to as TrumpRx at steep reductions.
BMO and different analysts largely shrugged on the bulletins—though they mentioned the offers did assist get rid of among the coverage unknowns surrounding tariffs and drug pricing which were dogging the complete pharmaceutical trade for months. BMO mentioned that after Trump’s newest remarks, their views stay unchanged.
“Coming away from right this moment’s statements by the Trump administration our view stays unchanged that impacts to the sector from MFN ought to stay largely muted with actual implementation difficult,” the analysts wrote in a notice to traders Thursday.
With that mentioned, Seigerman expects GLP-1s specifically to proceed to face pricing strain.
“We all know GLP1 pricing is and can proceed to be beneath strain, however right this moment’s feedback reinforce the ‘any manner the wind blows’ nature of U.S. Well being Coverage,” Seigerman wrote.
The present listing value for Wegovy within the U.S. is $1,349.02 for a 28-day provide, in response to Novo. However the producer provides rebates that may convey down the associated fee to about $499 a month, so long as sufferers pay out of pocket with out utilizing insurance coverage. Whereas not all industrial insurance coverage covers the burden loss remedy, Novo says that by way of payers that do, sufferers might pay simply $224 monthly, or nothing in any respect.
GoodRx additionally provided a direct-to-consumer coupon setting the worth at $499 monthly.
The BMO analysts referred to as the MFN negotiations extra of a “headline threat” to GLP-1 makers than an actual risk. Nonetheless, the drugmakers had been pressured on the inventory market after the announcement and into Friday morning.
