Hi, I’m Darius Tahir, a correspondent for KFF Health News who covers technology policy. Send tips to dtahir@kff.org.
By Darius Tahir
President Donald Trump has long bantered about GLP-1s, the breakthrough medicines that have changed care for diabetes and obesity. Sometimes he calls them “the fat drug.” In an interview with the The New York Times in January, he mused that “I probably should” take them.
A few days before the Times published that story, Trump invested in Eli Lilly, the nearly $1 trillion drugmaker whose fortunes are closely tied to its blockbuster GLP-1s, Zepbound and Foundayo — and to government reimbursement for the medicines.
This week we reported on several Lilly stock purchases made by Trump or his brokers from January to March, totaling as much as $680,000, according to a disclosure signed by the president. He also purchased stock worth $250,000 to $500,000 in West Pharmaceutical Services, a company that manufactures devices for injectable drugs. It, too, is benefiting from the GLP-1 surge.
As the purchases occurred, the Trump administration was undertaking an agenda that boosted the GLP-1 market, including advancing Medicare reimbursement for the drugs to treat obesity, a long-held goal for Lilly. The deadline for drug manufacturers to get involved in a reimbursement project was Jan. 8.
The administration also intensified a crackdown on “compounded” GLP-1s — cheaper, copycat medications made by pharmacies that critics (and brand-name drugmakers) claim are unsafe. That knocked out competitors to Lilly’s products. Trump’s FDA also rapidly approved Lilly’s GLP-1 pill, Foundayo.
The timing of the Lilly purchases — among more than 3,600 trades Trump or his representatives made in the first quarter of the year — troubled government ethics experts.
“A president who buys or sells the stock of a company whose value is affected by his administration’s actions undermines the public’s trust in two ways,” said Kathleen Clark, a legal ethicist at Washington University in St. Louis.
First, she said, the public should believe government actions are motivated by common good, not personal enrichment. Second, the public should believe that those within government aren’t benefiting from inside information.
The disclosures have also intensified criticism from Trump opponents who say he’s trying to profit from the presidency.
Congressional Democrats are calling for legislative action. “Trump is the ultimate con man — rig the game, manipulate the rules, and reap the benefits,” Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.) said on X, highlighting our report. “It’s long past time we ban presidents from owning and trading stocks.”
Democrats might have their shot at a bill in 2027. Public opinion is increasingly swinging in their direction, and taking both chambers of Congress is a possibility. (Of course, even if Democrats claimed those majorities and passed a bill, it would have to be signed by Trump.) If they were determined to pursue anti-corruption measures relating to health issues, they would have targets beyond Trump’s stock trading. Democrats have also questioned corporate contributors’ influence on changes in FDA tobacco regulation, for example.
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