\n Medicare will save approximately $12 billion, or 44%, on 15 high-cost medications as a result of the second round of the program\u2019s drug price negotiations, the Trump administration announced Tuesday evening. The savings are estimated based on what Medicare spent on the medicines last year.\n <\/p>\n
\n Medicare enrollees are expected to save $685 million on out-of-pocket costs when the prices take effect in 2027.\n <\/p>\n
\n Ozempic and Wegovy, the blockbuster but costly GLP-1 drugs often used for weight loss and diabetes treatment, are among the medications that were selected for the second round<\/a> by the Biden administration just days before it left office. The negotiated price for 2027 ranges from $277 for Ozempic to $386 for Wegovy.\n <\/p>\n \n However, manufacturer Novo Nordisk announced a broader deal this month to sell the medicines to Medicare for $245. That agreement includes expanding Medicare and Medicaid coverage of the drugs for obesity.\n <\/p>\n \n Overall, the 15 medicines were used by about 5.3 million Medicare enrollees in 2024 and treat a variety of diseases, including asthma, cancer and diabetes. They accounted for $42.5 billion in prescription drug costs in 2024, before factoring in discounts and rebates that Medicare already receives.\n <\/p>\n \n Under the Medicare drug benefit program in effect in 2024, prior to the Inflation Reduction Act redesign, the savings would have been $8.5 billion or 36%.\n <\/p>\n \n While the controversial negotiation program<\/a>, which was authorized by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act<\/a>, was a key way that former President Joe Biden sought to lower drug costs, it has taken a backseat in the Trump administration. Instead, President Donald Trump has opted to prioritize voluntary agreements with individual drugmakers that he says will bring the prices American patients pay in line with the lower ones available in other developed nations.\n <\/p>\n \n The savings that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services negotiated range from 38% to 85% off the drugs\u2019 list prices. However, this does not reflect the rebates and discounts that Medicare already receives, which are confidential, making the true savings on each medicine harder to discern.\n <\/p>\n \n In the weeks before announcing the second-round results, Trump administration officials sought to downplay the savings that the Biden administration had achieved on the initial 10 drugs in the first round. At a Cabinet meeting last month, US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claimed that his Democratic predecessors were lying about the savings they said they had wrangled during the first round of negotiations. Kennedy maintained that they achieved a lower price on only one drug.\n <\/p>\n \n The drug industry has unsuccessfully fought the negotiations program in federal court and continues to maintain that it will do more harm than good.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cWe have seen that government price setting has not translated to lower out-of-pocket costs for patients and can lead to a loss of coverage for medications and higher insurance premiums,\u201d a Novo Nordisk spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday.\n <\/p>\n