Trump Drops Biden’s Medicare Obesity Drug Coverage Proposal (3)

The Trump administration decided against allowing Medicare to pay for obesity drugs, a move that would have given millions of older Americans access to the medications and cost the government billions.

The highly anticipated decision sent shares of obesity drugmakers Eli Lilly & Co. and Novo Nordisk A/S lower.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had been weighing a Biden administration proposal that would have expanded coverage of the costly drugs by classifying obesity as a disease. In its announcement Friday, CMS said it may reconsider its decision in the future.

Lilly’s shares dropped 2% at 4:42 p.m. in ...