Sydney Lepkin
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The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will negotiate the prices of 15 more drugs.
This is the third batch the program will negotiate since gaining this ability as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.
It will also renegotiate the Medicare price of type 2 diabetes pill, Tragenta, which was part of the second round of negotiations completed last year.
The law lays out which drugs are eligible for selection in this process.
Criteria include being on the market a number of years, not having generic or biosimilar competition, and being among drugs Medicare spends the most money on.
Negotiation will take place this summer and fall and prices will go into effect in 2028.
New drugs typically cost a lot more in the U.S.
than they do in other countries.
And the Trump administration has been announcing deals with drug companies to try to even the playing field.
has a deal with another country, the U.K.,
The UK will increase the prices its health service pays for new medicines by 25% and will reduce rebates paid by drug makers.
That's according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative.
In exchange, UK drugs, drug ingredients and medical technology will be exempt from US tariffs for at least three years.
Novo Nordisk has been working on a pill containing the same active ingredient as Ozempic and Wegovi.
It's a higher dose than what's in type 2 diabetes pill Rebelsis and is instead aimed at patients with obesity.
Studies show the new pill's efficacy is similar to Wagovi's.
If approved, the company says it will offer a discounted price of $149 a month for people not using their health insurance.