By Dominic Chopping


The U.S. Congressional Budget Office said in a presentation Wednesday that government spending on weight-loss drugs would raise the U.S. deficit over the next 10 years.

The CBO--which provides independent analysis of economic and budgetary issues--was presenting its budgetary analysis on a policy that could allow Medicare coverage of medications to treat obesity.

Medicare currently covers obesity treatments that include bariatric surgery, behavioral counseling, obesity screening and intensive behavioral therapy, but it doesn't cover new anti-obesity medications such as Novo Nordisk's Wegovy and Eli Lilly's Zepbound.

A new bill proposed to Congress seeks to allow Medicare to cover these medications and the CBO expects considerable demand for the drugs should the Medicare coverage be expanded.

"CBO expects that at their current prices, anti-obesity medications would cost the federal government more than it would save from reducing health care spending - which would lead to an overall increase in the deficit over the next 10 years," it said in the presentation.

Depending on the future prices of these drugs and their longer-term effects on the use of other health care products and services, the budgetary effect could change in later decades, it added.

The current price for a four-week supply of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs ranges from around $1,100 to $1,300 and the CBO said that if the drugs were covered by Medicare some of the cost would be paid by the patient while the amount received by the manufacturer would probably be reduced due to discounts.

Novo Nordisk shares fell 2% in afternoon trade in Copenhagen.


Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com


(END) Dow Jones Newswires

03-21-24 0911ET