STAT+: Did the Trump administration just cut Novo a huge financial win? — SkimNews
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- Dr. Oz publicly praised GLP-1 obesity drugs at Eli Lilly's lab, claiming MFN agreements had drastically cut prices — but STAT notes Lilly's GLP-1s are actually exempt from those MFN agreements, flagging the comment as inaccurate.
- Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk both previously secured deals with the Trump administration aimed at cutting obesity drug costs for seniors, per STAT's earlier reporting.
- Novo Nordisk may have gotten an extra, undisclosed sweetener beyond that publicly known deal, according to the teased STAT+ exclusive.
- The undisclosed arrangement relates to Medicare's Bridge program, per the companion STAT headline covering the same scoop.
- The newsletter's author adds a self-correction: a prior issue misattributed an AEI post to another conservative think tank.
Why it matters: If Novo secured an additional concession beyond Lilly's deal, the Trump administration is giving the two GLP-1 giants uneven terms — a competitive edge for Novo at taxpayer or senior expense, and a signal that the much-touted MFN pricing push is being negotiated opaquely rather than uniformly applied.
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