Trump Strikes Deal to Slash Weight-Loss Drug Prices

Senate Majority Leader Thune (Sipa USA)
By Yuval Rosenberg and Michael Rainey

Happy Thursday! Lots of history was made on this date: In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president; in 1956, Dwight Eisenhower won a second term in office; in 1984, Ronald Reagan won 49 states en route to his own second term; and in 2012, Barack Obama cruised to re-election against Mitt Romney. Here's what's happening today.

Thune Pushes Long-Shot Plan to End the Shutdown

Senate Majority Leader John Thune intends to hold a vote Friday on a legislative package that would end the government shutdown now in its 37th day, though details are still sketchy and the prospects for success are anything but certain.

Thune's plan involves bringing up three major appropriations bills for fiscal year 2026, combined with the short-term funding extension passed by the House but amended with an ending date in January rather than in November, along with a promise to vote on enhanced subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans by a certain date. While Democrats have rejected that House funding bill more than a dozen times, Thune's goal is to win over enough moderate Democrats who have grown weary of the shutdown to push the package through.

The plan could be delayed by various procedural hurdles, though Republican leaders said they will work through the weekend if they need to.

Thune may have some major hurdles to cross as he looks for enough disaffected Democrats to make his plan work. Following a lunchtime meeting, Democratic senators indicated that they are sticking with their strategy of demanding an extension of the enhanced ACA subsidies in exchange for their votes.

Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut told reporters that this week's election results have bolstered Democrats' resolve. "Obviously, voters were really focused on costs on Tuesday," he said. "All of us in the caucus heard that loud and clear. We want to stick together, unified, and we had a really good conversation about how to do that."

Earlier plan fizzles: There was a glimmer of hope earlier Thursday that the shutdown showdown could be nearing an end, as Republicans reportedly made a slightly different offer to end the stalemate. Although the details are unclear, the offer revolved around a package with some of the same elements as the one Thune is contemplating, including appropriations bills for fiscal year 2026 and the promise of a vote on the enhanced subsidies for ACA health plans that Democrats have demanded. In addition, it reportedly included a pledge by Republicans to support a plan to reinstate about 6,000 federal employees who were fired during the shutdown.

A rush of optimism quickly gave way to frustration, though, as Speaker Mike Johnson made it clear that he has no plans to allow a vote on extending ACA subsidies in the House before the shutdown ends. "I'm not promising anybody anything," he told reporters Thursday morning, adding his familiar refrain that the House has already done its job as far as he is concerned by passing a clean short-term funding bill back in September.

Some Democrats expressed skepticism about the proposed deal, as well. "Settling for some kind of vague promise about a vote in the future on some indeterminate bill without any definite inclusion in the law, I think is a mistake," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal. "I think voters would rightly see it as a surrender."

Trump still wants to nuke the filibuster: President Trump continued to call on Republican senators to eliminate the filibuster and pass the House's short-term funding bill on their own with a simple majority rather than the 60 votes usually needed.

"The Democrats will terminate the Filibuster in THE FIRST HOUR, if and when they assume 'control' or power," Trump wrote on his social media platform. "Republicans have what the Democrats want - We should do it, NOW, and have the greatest three years in History!"

Thune has been cool to the idea, though, and has stated that there aren't enough votes in the Senate to eliminate the filibuster.

Trump Announces Deal to Lower Cost of Weight-Loss Drugs

President Trump on Thursday announced a deal with pharmaceutical giants Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to expand coverage and substantially lower the cost of popular weight-loss and diabetes drugs, saving consumers and the government money.

"The agreement represents a historic reduction in prices for Americans on the two drugs with the highest annual expenditures in the United States," the White House said.

Trump said that the companies have agreed to provide the drugs Wegovy and Zepbound as well as two obesity pills that are expected to be approved by regulators at "drastic discounts" to current prices.

"It's a triumph for American patients that will save lives and improve the health of millions and millions of Americans," Trump said. "Amazing thing."

The medications, part of a wave of obesity-fighting GLP-1 receptor agonists - or, as Trump refers to them, fat drugs - have become wildly popular in recent years, but access has been limited because of their cost and limitations on insurance coverage.

The Trump administration says that the prices of Ozempic and Wegovy will be $350 when purchased directly from the manufacturers, without insurance, through TrumpRx.gov. That's down from a current price of around $500 for patients who buy the drugs directly. Eli Lilly said it would make Zepbound available for $50 less than its current direct-to-consumer prices, dropping the cost to $299 for the lowest dose injectable pen and $449 for the highest dose.

Administration officials expect the average cost of the drugs to fall to $245 a month over the next two years.

If approved by the Food and Drug Administration, new pill forms of the drugs will cost $149 a month through TrumpRx.

Medicare has covered some GLP-1 drugs as treatments for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, but not for weight loss. The prospect of having Medicare cover the medications specifically for weight loss had sparked concerns about spiraling costs to the government. The Biden administration had proposed a rule late last year that would have seen Medicare and Medicaid cover the drugs as weight-loss medications for obese patients, expanding access to several million more people, but the Trump administration scrapped that plan earlier this year.

Now, the Trump administration says that Medicare will start to cover Wegovy and Zepbound as obesity treatments next year. The Medicare price of Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound will be $245 a month, with copays for qualified Medicare beneficiaries of $50 a month

In exchange for their pricing commitments and plans to expand manufacturing in the United States, the companies will receive three-year exemptions from some tariffs.

Quote of the Day

"I think they're coming down, but I think they're down already. I think the biggest problem is Republicans don't talk about it. They don't talk about the word 'affordability,' and the Democrats lie about it."

− President Trump, talking about consumer prices in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.

Trump was asked by anchor Bret Baier for his assessment of Tuesday's election results and Americans' economic concerns, including a message from a Trump supporter who asked the president to do something about costs. "I want the Republicans to keep control of Congress in 2026, but something HAS to be done fast!" she told Fox. "I don't see the best economy right now-Wall Street numbers do not reflect my Main Street money. Please do something, President Trump."

The president argued that prices are low, except for beef, and that falling energy prices would filter through the economy. But he largely blamed Republicans for not touting the state of the economy.

The comments come as Trump faces new concerns, heightened by Democrats' election wins, that he may be out of touch with voter fears about the economy.

Pelosi Announces She Won't Seek Another Term

Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Thursday that she won't run for re-election and will retire from Congress when her current term ends in early 2027. Pelosi, 85, became one of the most powerful politicians of modern times and most powerful - and polarizing - women in U.S. history. She led House Democrats from 2003 to 2023 and was the first woman elected as House speaker.

She held the gavel for two four-year stints in that role, helping pass President Obama's signature legislation and later squaring off against President Trump as the House impeached him twice.

"For almost four decades, Nancy Pelosi has served the American people and worked to make our country better," Obama said in a statement. "No one was more skilled at bringing people together and getting legislation passed - and I will always be grateful for her support of the Affordable Care Act. She made us proud to be Democrats, and will go down in history as one of the best speakers the House of Representatives has ever had."

Trump, unsurprisingly, offered a very different take. "I think she's an evil woman. I'm glad she's retiring," Trump told reporters on Thursday. "I thought she was an evil woman who did a poor job, who cost the country a lot in damages and in reputation. I thought she was terrible."

News

Views and Analysis