STAT+: Pharmalittle: We’re reading about a plan to lower Medicare drug prices, a Lilly obesity drug, and more — SkimNews
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- Trump administration published a final Medicare drug pricing rule aimed at doctor-administered drugs, but it applies to only four companies and saves 96% less than the initial proposal, STAT reports.
- The rule, called the Global Benchmark for Efficient Drug Pricing (GLOBE), is one of two mandatory pilot programs under Trump's most-favored nation pricing push; a companion pilot called GUARD remains in the proposed stage.
- Eli Lilly's investigational combination of Zepbound with amylin-targeting eloralintide produced 23.3% weight loss at the highest dose after 48 weeks in a mid-stage trial of patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes.
- The combination outperformed Zepbound alone (14.8% weight loss) and eloralintide alone (11.1%), STAT notes, but high rates of patients stopping treatment may raise tolerability concerns.
- The Lilly results come from a Phase 2 mid-stage study, meaning the combination remains years from potential regulatory approval and commercial launch.
- GLOBE and GUARD together form Trump's plan to tie U.S. Medicare drug prices to those charged in other wealthy countries — a policy stance that has drawn intense opposition from drugmakers.
Why it matters: The final GLOBE rule's narrowed scope — four companies and 96% less savings than proposed — sharply scales back Trump's most-favored nation pricing experiment before it even takes effect, limiting immediate relief on Medicare drug spending. For Lilly, the 23.3% combination weight loss beats either component alone, but the high dropout rate is a real commercial liability that could blunt the therapy's appeal if it eventually reaches market.
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