Man Passes Out in Oval Office During Trump Drug Price Announcement

A Thursday Oval Office event, where President Donald Trump announced price reductions for weight-loss drugs, was interrupted by a health emergency. One of the attendees appeared to faint live on air during the event. Fox News quickly cut away from the event as White House staff ushered the press out of the room.

Fox later reported that the man was “okay” and that they would pick up the presser as soon as it resumes.

Reports immediately identified the man as “Novo Nordisk executive Gordon Findlay,” which the Washington Post’s Dan Diamond later clarified was inaccurate, as the man was instead an “Eli Lilly patient, who had been invited to the White House based on his experience taking a GLP-1 drug.”

Trump was joined in the Oval Office by many of his cabinet members, including HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy, Jr, and several executives from some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers: Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Novartis.

Before Findlay’s collapse, Trump announced sweeping price cuts on weight-loss drugs like Wegovy, which he said will drop from over $1,000 to $250 per month, while Zepbound’s monthly cost will drop to $346.

Trump said earlier in the event:

Eli Lilly and Novartis will offer Zepbound and Wegovy for American patients, slashing the price from $1350 a month to ultimately $250 a month. $1350 to $250. Did I do a good job? They will not write about it. Do you think Biden could have done this? I don’t think so. Reduce the monthly cost of Zepbound $1080 to $346. They are both committing to future GLP-1 weight loss drugs taken orally under development will be sold at no more than $149 per month.

It’s a massive, think of that, you go from 1300 to $149. We anticipate new versions will be coming out in a very short period of time. All these drugs will be available directly to the consumer at trumprx.gov. They wanted to use my name. It turned out to be amazing. Medicare and Medicaid will cover the cost of these weight loss drugs for millions of patients suffering from obesity. Copays for Medicare patients as low as $50. This is tremendous savings from $1350 to $50. This is tremendous news for the American seniors and you will remember what I had one eighth of 1 percent for the year and I was so thrilled now we’re cutting it 1000%, 1200%, nobody has seen anything like this before.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to clarify that the man who passed out in the Oval Office was an Eli Lilly patient, not a big pharma executive as was previously reported.

This is a developing story and has been updated.