By Popular weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound will soon cost Americans less under a new deal announced by President Donald Trump on Thursday.
Agreements with drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly will slash the prices of so-called GLP-1 drugs, which could eventually cost as little as $149 per month.
The average price of the blockbuster injectables will start at $350 per month on the administration’s new TrumpRX platform but will trend down to $245 over the next two years, officials said Thursday.
“That’s compared to roughly $500 today,” Chris Klomp, director of Medicare and deputy administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), said at a press conference.
The Medicare prices of Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Mounjaro and Zepbound will be $245, according to the White House.
When pill forms of the drugs reach the market, starting doses will be priced at $149 per month for everyone through TrumpRx, which will allow people to buy drugs directly from manufacturers and is set to launch in January.
Thursday’s announcement is expected to expand access to the popular drugs, whose high prices have put them out of reach for many Americans.
How much do weight loss drugs cost?
Prescription drug prices aren’t straightforward, and two people may pay different prices for the same drug depending on their insurance situation.
The list price of Zepbound is $1,086 for a month’s supply, according to Eli Lilly, which is how much the company sells it to wholesalers. That means the medication can cost more than $13,000 a year without insurance or manufacturer discounts.
Wegovy, made by Novo Nordisk, has a list price of about $1,350 for a 28-day supply — about $16,200 per year without insurance or manufacturer discounts. Ozempic is listed for about $1,000.
Monthly prescriptions can cost even more for those paying entirely out of pocket due to pharmacy markups, according to GoodRx.
Those price tags have been nonstarters for many Americans, prompting both companies to roll out programs to make the drugs more affordable.
Eli Lilly offers its lowest dose of Zepbound for $349 a month to self-paying customers through its LillyDirect platform, with other strengths at $499. The company recently partnered with Walmart to make the medication available for pickup at its pharmacies.
Novo Nordisk offers Ozempic and Wegovy at $499 per month for eligible self-paying patients through partners such as GoodRx, Costco, and other pharmacy discount programs.
Those discounted prices apply to eligible cash-paying customers — typically people without insurance or whose plans don’t cover the drugs.
For those with insurance, the cost of GLP-1 drugs varies widely, from practically nothing to several hundred dollars a month.
Does insurance cover weight loss drugs?
About 1 in 5 firms (19 percent) with 200 or more workers cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss in their largest health plan in 2025, according to the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker.
Among those with 5,000 or more workers, that share has risen to 43 percent — up from 28 percent in 2024.
“The meaningful shares of larger employers covering these medications for weight loss, notwithstanding their relatively high cost, underscores the importance many employers place on covering these medications for employees,” Peterson-KFF researchers noted in a recent report.
The uptick in coverage comes as a growing number of Americans are turning to drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy — medications commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes — for weight loss.
Gallup polling shows the share of adults who’ve ever used a weight loss injectable has doubled over the past year — from 6 percent in 2024 to more than 12 percent now. That rise has coincided with a decline in the adult obesity rate, which has dropped from a U.S. peak of roughly 40 percent in 2022 to 37 percent in 2025.