President Donald Trump Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The choice for health secretary said Thursday that he believes anti-obesity drugs “have a place.”
The comment, made in a brief interview with CNBC on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, was the strongest suggestion yet that Kennedy would not necessarily move to block access if he is confirmed to take over the Department of Health and Human Services. He has criticized the drug class in the past, but doctors are now calling it a powerful tool in the obesity epidemic.
When asked how he feels about drugs that mimic the actions of the GLP-1 hormone, Kennedy said “the first line of response has to be lifestyle, it has to be eating well, making sure you’re not obese and those GLP drugs have a place.”
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The Health and Human Services Secretary nominee will leave the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on December 12, 2024, in New York.
David Dee Delgado/AFP via Getty Images
Kennedy’s side comes a day later Trump advisor Elon Musk said, “Nothing would do more to improve the health, life expectancy and quality of life of Americans than making LPG inhibitors very low cost to the public.”
The approval of drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound by two people with Trump’s ear is likely to be a relief to the pharmaceutical industry after Kennedy’s sharp questioning of America’s addiction to weight loss drugs. Kennedy has previously said that if America paid more for quality food, it would solve the obesity crisis “overnight” – a statement that obesity experts criticized as overly simplistic.
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk listens as U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks to House Republicans at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Washington on Nov. 13, 2024.
Allison Robbert/POOL via Reuters, FILES
It is still uncertain how the incoming administration intends to handle drug coverage through Medicare and Medicaid and any regulation of the private insurance industry.
The Biden administration has asked Medicare and Medicaid to expand coverage of weight-loss drugs to people struggling with obesity, not just as a treatment for diabetes. But since this rule will not be implemented until 2026, it will be up to the incoming administration to put it into effect.
Covering GLP-1 drugs in federal health insurance programs would be costly to the country. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that expanding coverage of anti-obesity drugs would increase federal spending on Medicare alone by about $35 billion from 2026 to 2034.
Calley Means, a senior adviser to Kennedy, has criticized Biden’s proposal for taking weight-loss drugs instead of encouraging lifestyle changes and suggested the incoming administration should “work on benefit flexibility where patients can work with their doctors on the best reversal solution.” obesity for them,” including “lifestyle training, nutritional interventions or, in some cases, drugs.”
In this Oct. 31, 2023 file photo, a box of Ozempic and its contents sit on a table in Dudley, North Tyneside, Britain.
Lee Smith/Reuters, FILE
Means also said the government needs to ensure prices reflect European costs.
“The problem is not that Ozempic exists,” Means tweeted Thursday. “The fact that this Danish company has been able to pay off US regulators, the media and lawmakers is the only way to force this drug down our throats.”
In the CNBC interview on Thursday, Kennedy also reiterated his position that he does not oppose all vaccines.
Although Kennedy has said he is not against all vaccines, he has falsely claimed that childhood vaccines cause autism, despite retracting the fraudulent study that originally suggested the link and numerous high-quality studies disproving that theory.
In an interview with Time magazine, Trump said the issue of vaccine safety still needed “a lot of discussion” and that he would be open to restricting some vaccines if Kennedy deemed them “dangerous.”
Kennedy said he is “absolutely vaccinated” except for COVID-19.
