Eli Lilly has started selling single-dose vials of its blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound for roughly half of its usual monthly list price.
Patients with a prescription who are paying out of pocket can now purchase a month's supply of the drug through LillyDirect — the company's direct-to-consumer platform that launched in January. Eli Lilly is offering a four-week supply of 2.5-milligram and 5-milligram single-dose vials for $399 and $549, respectively. The list prices for GLP-1 weight loss drugs are typically around $1,000 a month.
"This new option helps millions of adults with obesity access the medicine they need, including those not eligible for the Zepbound savings card program, those without employer coverage and those who need to self-pay outside of insurance," Eli Lilly said in an Aug. 27 news release.
Three more notes:
- Zepbound typically comes in a single-dose autoinjector pen. The new vials will require patients to administer the medicine using a needle and syringe. The drugmaker said the vials will expand the supply of Zebound in the U.S. because they are simpler to produce than the autoinjector pens.
- Eli Lilly added a self-pay pharmacy channel to its LillyDirect website, where patients with a valid prescription can purchase the vials. The drugmakers said this will ensure patients receive "genuine" Zepbound amid a rise in counterfeit and compounded products, which use the same active ingredient as brand-name drugs but are not tested or regulated by the FDA.
- The move stands to raise pressure on Novo Nordisk surrounding the prices of its GLP-1 drugs, analysts told Bloomberg. The drugmaker's Ozempic is listed at $969 per month in the U.S., and Wegovy at $1,349 per month. The company's CEO, Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, is set to testify on the drug's prices at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing Sept. 24. Mr. Jørgensen recently told NBC News the two drugs can reduce overall costs associated with obesity care.