Klobuchar Statement on Weight Loss Drug Pricing Announcement

WASHINGTON - Today, U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) released the following statement in response to Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk's newly negotiated prices for weight loss drugs for Medicare beneficiaries.

"Today's announcement of lower prices for Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs is a direct result of the Medicare drug price negotiations bill that I led and was passed into law in 2022,"said Klobuchar. "For too long, big drug companies have put profits ahead of the health and well-being of the American people. It's welcome news that some of the most widely-used medications will now be more affordable thanks to Medicare's drug price negotiations."

Klobuchar has long led efforts to lower drug prices. The Empowering Medicare Seniors to Negotiate Drug Prices Act, Klobuchar's bill to end the ban on Medicare negotiating lower prescription drug prices for Medicare's 51 million seniors and help lower drug prices for all Americans was signed into law in August 2022.

In May, Klobuchar, Senator Peter Welch (D-VT), and 25 of their colleagues re-introduced the Strengthening Medicare and Reducing Taxpayer (SMART) Prices Act, which would expand the number of prescription drugs that HHS could negotiate lower prices for and increase the amount of savings Medicare could negotiate.

In April, two of Klobuchar and Senator Chuck Grassley's (R-IA) bipartisan bills to promote competition and reduce drug prices - The Preserving Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act and the Stop STALLING Act - passed the Senate Judiciary Committee by voice vote. Together these bills would save taxpayers $1.9 billion over 10 years.

The Preserving Access to Affordable Generics and Biosimilars Act would limit anticompetitive "pay-for-delay" deals that prevent or delay the introduction of affordable follow-on versions of branded pharmaceuticals.

The Stop Significant and Time-wasting Abuse Limiting Legitimate Innovation of New Generics (STALLING) Act would deter pharmaceutical companies from filing sham petitions with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in order to interfere with the approval of generic and biosimilar medicines that compete with their own brand products, a tactic that delays patient access to affordable medications.

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