New obesity drug would cost Medicare $27 billion, even with limited uptake

Covering Novo Nordisk A/S’s new obesity drug Wegovy could strain the budget of US government insurance program Medicare, according to a new analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Even if only 10% of Medicare beneficiaries with obesity take Wegovy, it could cost around $27 billion a year, or about 18.5% of Medicare net drug spending, according to the analysis.

“The cost would exceed the entire Part D budget” if all Medicare beneficiaries with obesity take the Novo drug, the co-authors wrote, referring to Medicare’s Part D prescription drug benefit. The cost would also “be greater than the total excess health care spending associated with obesity.”