The Federal Trade Commission needs to keep a watchful eye on Big Pharma’s recent maneuvers to control necessary medicine. Indeed, large pharmaceutical companies are seizing our growing diabetes and obesity crises as an opportunity to cash in on American patients. How? They are attempting to manipulate the production of semaglutide—the primary ingredient in Ozempic and Wegovy—probably because of the undeniable pecuniary success European Big Pharma companies, like Novo Nordisk, are seeing from those sales. Indeed, Ozempic sales in the U.S. were roughly $13.9 billion in 2023. Novo Nordisk itself reported that it experienced an increase of 58 percent in GLP-1 diabetes sales and a 154 percent rise in obesity care sales, largely credited to Ozempic and Wegovy’s distribution.
One primary issue is that the GLP-1 market is almost entirely made up of one of two manufacturers, Lilly and Novo Nordisk. These two companies control almost the total supply of GLP-1 medications. Conservative estimations indicate that Lilly enjoys at least a 56 percent market share in GLP-1 subscriptions. Novo Nordisk makes up the remaining 44 percent.
Given these drugs’ essential role in managing our ongoing diabetes and obesity crises, we can’t be overly reliant on two supply chains, especially when just under half of it is owned by a non-American company, namely Novo Nordisk. When one of these firms makes an economic decision, such as engaging in exclusive dealings or changing prices, it sends a sonic boom throughout the market both for consumers and competitors.
It is why the Trump administration must stay vigilant of Big Pharma’s tactics to harness control over our medicine so that the MAHA agenda can be realized fully.
It is also why Lilly’s recent deals with telemedicine providers is so troubling. On June 10, 2025, high-level officials at Lilly offered remarks at Goldman Sachs’s conference. According to readouts from Lilly’s presentation, the company described the measures it is undertaking to “reduc[e] patient out-of-pocket costs” and how it plans to “enhance[e] direct-to-consumer experiences.”