Ozempic among 15 drugs selected for Medicare drug price talks, Round 2, with Big Pharma

Prescription drug costs.Cagkan Sayin/Adobe Stock

Building on the success of the first round of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services price negotiations last year, the agency has announced the selection of 15 drugs, up from 10 in the first round, for Round 2 of the negotiations with top drugmakers – and popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs, Ozempic, Wegovy and Rybelsus, are in the mix.

Medicare, which has selected the following 15 drugs (listed in order of covered drug costs from November 2023 to October 2024) to negotiate directly with participating drug companies, aims to lower prices for these costly prescription drugs: 

• Ozempic; Rybelsus; Wegovy, for Type 2 diabetes and weight loss (Novo Nordisk)
• Trelegy Ellipta, an asthma treatment (GSK)
• Xtandi, for prostate cancer (Pfizer)
• Pomalyst, a chemotherapy drug (Bristol-Myers Squibb)
• Ibrance, a breast cancer drug (Pfizer)
• Ofev, for idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (Boehringer Ingelheim)
• Linzess, a chronic constipation drug (AbbVie)
• Calquence, a cancer drug (AstraZeneca)
• Austedo; Austedo XR, for Huntington’s disease (Teva)
• Breo Ellipta, a COPD drug (GSK)
• Tradjenta, a diabetes drug (Boehringer Ingelheim)
• Xifaxan, for diarrhea and irritable bowel syndrome (Salix)
• Vraylar, an antipsychotic drug (AbbVie)
• Janumet; Janumet XR, diabetes drugs (Merck)
• Otezla, a psoriatic arthritis drug (Amgen)

The announcement of this list is the first step in a negotiation process between Medicare and drugmakers that is expected to take place during 2025, with a final decision on prices due Nov. 30, 2025. The new negotiated prices will become effective January 1, 2027. However, the deliberations – mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 — face an uncertain future under the incoming Trump administration.