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The weight loss medicines are proving to be a test case for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, in straddling divisions between his supporters and the president.
Nov. 14, 2025Updated 10:25 a.m. ET
Last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, stood in the Oval Office and lauded President Trump’s new drug pricing deal for weight loss drugs.
“It is going to have dramatic effects on human health in this country,” Mr. Kennedy said, and thanked the “extraordinary C.E.O.s” of Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, who were standing beside him.
It was a stark contrast to Mr. Kennedy’s history of bashing weight loss medications and pharmaceutical companies. Just a year ago, he claimed Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, was “counting on selling it to Americans because we are so stupid and so addicted to drugs.”
The president’s deals with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly would lower prices and significantly expand coverage of the obesity drugs under Medicare and Medicaid. That would appear to run counter to Mr. Kennedy’s longstanding hostility toward the weight loss drugs, a view shared by some of his supporters. But neither he nor high-profile followers of the “Make America Healthy Again’’ movement would be likely to risk seeming disloyal to Mr. Trump.
As the nation’s top health official, Mr. Kennedy has been trying to navigate a balance between promoting the president’s goals and assuaging his supporters. He shifts between labeling weight loss medications as “miracle drugs” and renewing concerns about their safety.
Representatives for Mr. Kennedy did not make him available for an interview for this article.
Last week, he straddled the divide by recasting the pharmaceutical industry’s most important cash cow as part of his healthy food campaign against chronic disease.
