Novo Nordisk (NVO) and Eli Lilly (LLY) stocks slumped Friday after President Donald Trump said he would cut the price of weight-loss drugs.
In apparently unplanned comments at the White House, Trump said he would lower the price of Novo Nordisk’s type 2 diabetes treatment Ozempic as well as what he referred to as “the fat-loss drug.” Novo’s Wegovy, which uses the same active ingredient as Ozempic, is an anti-obesity drug.
When asked if they could cost $150 out of pocket, down from the current $1,000-plus, Trump said, “They’ll be much lower.” Dr. Mehmet Oz, who heads up the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, quickly jumped in to say, “We have not negotiated those yet.”
“We’ll be rolling these out over time,” Oz said. “The GLP category of drugs, which includes Ozempic, have not been negotiated yet.”
In response, Novo Nordisk stock skidded 3.7% to 54.04, while Eli Lilly shares lost more than 3% to 793.34. Eli Lilly makes competing drugs called Mounjaro and Zepbound for diabetes and weight loss, respectively.
Novo Nordisk Remains Under Pressure
Though there’s no doubting the popularity of its weight-loss drug, Novo Nordisk stock has been anything but stunning this year. Shares have fallen 37% in 2025. Lilly stock is making something of a comeback, shrugging off pressure in August to rise 3% on a year-to-date basis.
Before the unplanned view on obesity medications, the main purpose of the press conference was to discuss a deal with the German pharma company Merck KGaA, which agreed to reduce the price of fertility drugs to win a reprieve on pharmaceutical tariffs.
The deal is part of a broader Trump administration effort to lower drug prices. Recently, Pfizer (PFE) and AstraZeneca (AZN) agreed to elements of Trump’s Most Favored Nation executive order.
Pfizer said it will offer a “large majority” of its primary care products and some of its specialty drugs for a lower cost on the direct-to-consumer website, TrumpRx. AstraZeneca said it would bring American drug prices in line with the lowest prices paid by other developed nations.
Trump has said he will hold off on a 100% pharmaceutical tariff to give companies time to negotiate deals. When it comes to weight-loss drugs, there’s no timeline on when those deals could come.
“I think those are going to come down pretty fast,” Trump said.
Oz added: “The president will be happy with the result and until he is we’re not going to close those negotiations.”
Follow Allison Gatlin on X/Twitter at @AGatlin_IBD.
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