A new Medicare demonstration pathway would make weight-loss drugs available to adults 65 and older for the first time next month, bypassing a legal prohibition on direct Medicare payment for obesity medications. The program is designed to be temporary but could be hard to unwind, according to STAT+. STAT+ reported that initial Medicare plans to rely on private Medicare insurers under a three-year BALANCE program were rejected as insurers balked. The government instead extended a transitional coverage program, called Bridge, until the end of next year. Separately, a proposed federal Medicare price-negotiation rule could also reshape how under-the-skin versions of blockbuster cancer immunotherapies are handled, potentially affecting how biosimilar competition intersects with pricing later in the decade.