Negotiations will soon begin to add the appetite-suppressing drug Wegovy on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), the federal government has confirmed.
About 400,000 Australians currently pay up to $5000 a year to access Wegovy, Ozempic and other GLP-1 weight-loss drugs.
A PBS listing would cut the cost to $25 a script, or $7.70 for concession holders.
But only people with established cardiovascular disease or those severely obese with a body mass index above 35 are likely to be eligible for the discount when it eventually comes into force.
The strict eligibility criteria means hundreds of thousands of patients will still be left with the full bill, the chair of obesity medicine at the Royal Australian College of GPs says.
"People will get their hopes up but it is a very narrow clinical cohort," Dr Terri-Lynne South told AAP.
"Not everyone who has obesity will be able to access the medication under this current proposal."
While cautioning against universal optimism, Dr South said expanding access to the drug will help people keep weight off for longer.
"Cost has been one of the reasons for people stopping these medications prematurely," she said.
"It will make a big impact in how long people can continue a medication that is treating a chronic condition."
About two in three Australian adults are overweight or obese, while health system costs linked to preventable lifestyle conditions run into the tens of billions of dollars annually.
About 13 per cent of adults have severe obesity.
There is no indication of when the drug will be available on the PBS or what the cost to taxpayers will be.
But Health Minister Mark Butler indicated on Friday it would be substantial.
"This is going to be a very big bill for taxpayers, so it's incumbent on us as the government to negotiate a good price," he said.
Negotiations with the owner of Wegovy and Ozempic, Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, are due to begin later in 2026.
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