President Donald Trump earlier this yr purchased as a lot as $680,000 in inventory of Eli Lilly, the maker of blockbuster weight problems medication, because the companies he oversees undertook an agenda that largely benefited the corporate.
On Could 14, the federal authorities launched ethics disclosures revealing a listing of inventory and bond trades made on Trump’s behalf from January to March of this yr. They included in depth trades throughout the economic system, together with investments in tech giants reminiscent of Microsoft and Nvidia, aerospace companies reminiscent of Boeing, and household-name firms reminiscent of Goal and Chipotle.
In healthcare, nevertheless, the trades for Lilly — an organization valued by the inventory market at slightly below $1 trillion — stand out. That’s as a result of the timing of Trump’s purchases coincides with a number of favorable authorities choices benefiting the drugmaker’s GLP-1 enterprise, together with progress towards a long-held purpose: qualifying the medication for reimbursement from Medicare, the federal government medical insurance program primarily serving seniors, when they’re prescribed for weight reduction.
The disclosure varieties — which bear Trump’s distinct signature — give ranges fairly than precise greenback quantities for the trades. They present seven purchases of Lilly inventory made on the president’s behalf by way of the top of March, the primary of which occurred on Jan. 6.
Throughout that interval, and simply afterward, a number of Trump administration initiatives finally benefited Lilly. Maybe the largest was an initiative from the Facilities for Medicare & Medicaid Providers, which was proposing a pilot program — a brief “bridge,” probably adopted by everlasting reimbursement — by way of which Medicare sufferers would pay $50 a month for GLP-1 medication.
The deadline for drug producers to submit purposes indicating their curiosity in taking part was Jan. 8. Lilly has since been named as a taking part producer in this system, calling it a “vital milestone.”
One other buy on Feb. 10, of West Pharmaceutical Providers inventory valued between $250,000 and $500,000, was equally a wager on the GLP-1 market. The corporate, which manufactures injectable gadgets for medication, credited progress in its GLP-1 enterprise with driving elevated income in its most up-to-date quarter.
Lilly declined to remark. West Pharmaceutical Providers didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
A spokesperson on the Division of Well being and Human Providers declined to remark, referring KFF Well being Information to the White Home. A White Home spokesperson referred inquiries to the Trump Group — the holding firm for many of the president’s companies — which didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
In response to different shops’ questions on Trump’s inventory trades, the Trump Group has mentioned the investments are managed by unbiased brokers.
It’s unclear from the disclosures whether or not Trump directed any of the trades himself. 4 of the Lilly inventory purchases are marked “unsolicited,” although the Workplace for Authorities Ethics didn’t instantly reply to a request for clarification on the usage of that time period.
Trump’s belongings are in a belief held by his kids, and Trump Group spokespeople have mentioned up to now that neither the president nor his kids play a task in “deciding on, directing, or approving” particular investments.
Eric Trump, the president’s son and a Trump Group government, mentioned Could 15 on X: “To counsel that particular person shares are being purchased or offered, on the discretion of any member of the Trump household, could be a lie and blatantly false.”
He claimed the purchases of index funds account for the investments. The disclosures file purchases of funds and particular person shares.
Lilly had a robust 2025, ending with $65 billion in income, up $20 billion from the yr earlier than. GLP-1 medication accounted for a considerable portion of that whole.
Originally of 2026, the drugmaker mentioned it anticipated one other surge in income this yr, above $80 billion. It was a “beautiful” projection, analysts on the financial institution Citi mentioned.
Analysts for the monetary providers agency TD Cowen mentioned the Medicare and Medicaid market could be important to creating it occur. “Steering anticipates favorable influence from Medicare protection of weight problems drugs by 7/1/26,” the analysts famous.
Traditionally, Medicare hasn’t coated weight problems medication. In a Could 2025 open letter, noting unfavorable reimbursement choices throughout authorities and private-run insurance coverage, Lilly mentioned: “This isn’t about only one medication, formulary, or insurance coverage plan. It’s a few system that limits sufferers’ and well being care suppliers’ potential to decide on an weight problems administration therapy plan that’s finest for them.”
Key to that market was the pilot program rolled out by CMS, known as BALANCE, aimed toward serving to Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries enhance their well being. Final fall, 12% of U.S. adults reported at the moment utilizing GLP-1s, in response to a KFF ballot, and 56% of those that had used GLP-1s discovered the drugs — prescribed to deal with diabetes and help weight reduction — laborious to afford.
The looks of a possible battle of curiosity is sufficient to hassle ethics consultants.
“A president who buys or sells the inventory of an organization whose worth is affected by his administration’s actions undermines the general public’s belief in two methods,” mentioned Kathleen Clark, a authorized ethicist at Washington College in St. Louis.
First, she mentioned, the general public ought to consider authorities actions are motivated by widespread good, not private enrichment. And second, the general public ought to consider that these inside authorities aren’t benefiting from inside data.
A ban on inventory buying and selling by the president would require an act of Congress, although some lawmakers have resisted such laws. Members of Congress are additionally permitted to purchase and promote shares.
Trump’s White Home and HHS boosted GLP-1s all through the primary few months of the yr. In February, the federal government unveiled TrumpRx, an online portal directing sufferers to lower-price variations of some medication, with some phrases and situations.
The web site presents Zepbound for as little as $299 a month and factors sufferers to LillyDirect, the drug firm’s telemedicine service prescribing the drug. Firm executives haven’t commented on TrumpRx particularly, however they’ve touted the telemedicine service. Lilly’s 2025 annual submitting to the Securities and Change Fee mentioned LillyDirect was a “rising portion of our enterprise.”
Additionally, in February the FDA intensified a broad crackdown on “compounded” GLP-1s — medication manufactured by pharmacies which might be cheaper and, critics cost, typically unsafe options to Lilly’s branded merchandise.
The company made one other favorable determination for Lilly in April, approving its Foundayo weight reduction capsule below its Commissioner’s Nationwide Precedence Voucher program. This system was launched by FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who had promised to approve high-priority medication in file time. Foundayo was authorised in 50 days after submitting.
“This approval demonstrates what the FDA can obtain after we eradicate delays and prioritize quick and thorough work from the company and business companions,” Makary, who stepped down final week, mentioned in an April information launch.
Not all company choices have been favorable. The FDA requested Lilly to supply extra security information relating to liver toxicity in Foundayo, although analysts don’t seem notably troubled. The corporate has instructed information shops that no destructive security indicators have been noticed.
