September 22, 2026
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Washington Correspondent, D.C. Diagnosis Writer

Dr. Oz praised GLP-1s from Eli Lilly’s lab, where he said MFN agreements have drastically cut the price of obesity drugs. Problem is, at least Lilly’s GLP-1s are exempt from the MFN agreements (see below). But who am I to correct people? I incorrectly attributed an AEI post to another conservative think tank in this newsletter last week. Send news tips and correction requests to John.Wilkerson@statnews.com or John_Wilkerson.07 on Signal.

obesity drug prices

Novo’s (potentially) big win

STAT has written about how Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk benefited from their deals with the Trump administration to cut obesity drug costs for seniors. It turns out, Novo might have gotten an additional sweetener.

The administration announced Friday that 40 states and Puerto Rico will participate in the GENEROUS program, and the other 10 states have applied. The GENEROUS pilot gives states access to hundreds of drugs at most-favored nation prices in Medicaid, but the administration did not specify whether GLP-1s are included.

On Friday, a Lilly spokesperson said the company will not sell its weight loss drugs to states at the MFN price in GENEROUS. The consumer group Public Citizen also obtained a heavily redacted copy of Lilly’s deal showing that its GLP-1s are carved out from GENEROUS.

Novo did not say whether its obesity drug Wegovy would be available in GENEROUS. If it got the same deal as Lilly, it would be a big win.

Not including GLP-1s in GENEROUS isn’t a huge deal for Lilly’s bottom line, because the MFN prices for its obesity drugs are similar to the monthly $245 price that both companies agreed to in the separate Medicare GLP-1 Bridge pilot program, according to Thomas Hwang, director of the Cancer Innovation and Regulation Initiative at Harvard Medical School. Medicaid automatically gets the lowest price available in any U.S. market, so it will have access to that price, too.

But MFN prices for Novo's GLP-1 drugs are considerably lower than $245 a month, Hwang said.

Excluding GLP-1 products from GENEROUS would reduce projected savings by $1 billion to $1.7 billion in the first model year.

Read more about the remaining unanswered questions in GENEROUS.

medicaid cuts

Q&A with Brian Blase

STAT has written a lot about the nearly $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid in Republicans’ tax law. Hospitals and patient advocates have decried them, and many states don’t love them either.

But Daniel Payne spoke to Paragon Health Institute President Brian Blase, influential in Republican circles, who tells a different story. Blase argued that the cuts are more important now than ever, and said he supports the administration’s handling of work requirements. He also laid out what he thinks about hospital closings, and why he buys Obamacare insurance.

Read more of the sixth article in Daniel’s Unraveled series.

essay

Introducing STAT’s trust-in-science reporter

STAT reporters don’t typically introduce themselves to readers with essays about their personal health care struggles.

But our new trust-in-science reporter Nick Florko thought it fitting to tell readers he knows what it means to seek an elusive explanation to what ails you, and understands how frustrating it is to realize modern medicine does not have all the answers.

Read more about Nick’s health care journey, and how his search will help him understand what drives people to become skeptical of the health system. And check out a new STATus Report on why trust in science matters.

midterm elections

RFK Jr.’s clout put to the test

Republicans hope health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can help secure wins for GOP candidates in flagging campaigns.

Kennedy has appeared alongside multiple Republican candidates. But his influence is being put to the test more than anywhere in Iowa, where he has campaigned for gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn, a small farmer who’s promised to take on Big Agriculture.

Read more from Chelsea Cirruzzo about why the Iowa race is a test of Kennedy’s popularity and what it could mean for the MAHA movement.

cancer diagnostics

Why did Grail’s stock surge?

An FDA advisory committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday to discuss Galleri, a blood test aimed at early detection of several types of cancer. Shares in Grail, which makes the test, shot up 33% Monday after the FDA posted documents ahead of the meeting.

Read Mathew Herper’s article about why investors are upbeat, and what the meeting could mean for Grail, the future of cancer diagnostics, and the FDA.

More around STAT

What we’re reading

  • Members of Congress push back on plan to create a commission of political appointees to review NIH grants, STAT
  • House Democratic healthcare options sent to Hakeem Jeffries, Punchbowl News
  • With new strategy, Novo outlines plans for obesity, direct-to-consumer work, STAT
  • RFK Jr.-linked group offered access to U.S. officials for fee, Bloomberg
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