Lawmakers reintroduce bill to offer Medicare coverage for weight loss drugs
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A group of U.S. lawmakers on Thursday reintroduced a bill that will allow Medicare recipients to obtain coverage for weight loss therapies.
U.S. Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Representatives Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.) and Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) advanced the bipartisan bill named The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act (TROA).
Currently, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), which administers the federal health insurance program, doesnât permit coverage for weight loss drugs. The bill that was introduced on Thursday for the seventh time since 2012 aims to change that.
TROA has been introduced and reintroduced several times over the past 10 years but has never moved beyond Congress, even as obesity prevalence stands at ~42% in the U.S., where the market for weight loss therapies is rapidly expanding.
Novo Nordisk (NVO) is struggling to meet demand for its weight-loss medications Wegovy and Saxenda. Eli Lilly (NYSE:LLY) has also reported shortages for its diabetes therapy Mounjaro, which is expected to win FDA approval for weight loss this year.
Other major drugmakers with weight loss medicines in their pipelines include Pfizer (PFE) and Amgen (AMGN).
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