Eli Lilly releases new, cheaper form of weight loss drug

Eli Lilly on Tuesday released a new form of its weight loss drug Zepbound for roughly half its usual monthly list price to reach millions of patients without insurance coverage for the popular injection, such as those with Medicare. 

The move also aims to expand the supply of Zepbound in the U.S. as demand skyrockets, and to ensure eligible patients are safely accessing the real treatment as cheaper copycat versions gain traction. 

The company is now offering 2.5-milligram and 5-milligram single-dose vials of Zepbound for $399 per month and $549 per month, respectively, through its direct-to-consumer website. Patients typically start treatment with a 2.5-milligram dose, gradually increase the amount and later take so-called maintenance doses to keep the weight off.

The list prices of Zepbound and other popular weight loss drugs, such as Novo Nordisk‘s Wegovy, are around $1,000 per month before insurance and other rebates. Those treatments are part of a blockbuster class of medications called GLP-1s, which mimic certain gut hormones to tamp down a person’s appetite and regulate blood sugar. 

Patients need to use a syringe and needle to draw up the medicine from a single-dose vial — the version of Zepbound Eli Lilly is releasing Tuesday — and inject themselves. That differs from single-dose autoinjector pens, the currently available form of all Zepbound doses, which patients can directly inject under their skin with the click of a button.

Eli Lilly has said the vials will create additional supply capacity because they are easier to manufacture than autoinjector pens.

The lower price points will benefit patients who are willing to pay for Zepbound themselves and are enrolled in Medicare or employer-sponsored health plans that do not currently cover obesity treatments, said Patrik Jonsson, president of Eli Lilly diabetes and obesity, in an interview. 

He noted that Medicare beneficiaries are also not eligible for Eli Lilly’s savings card programs for Zepbound. One program allows people with insurance coverage for Zepbound to pay as little as $25 out of pocket, while another allows those whose insurance does not cover the drug to pay as low as $550.

Having patients directly pay for single-dose vials of Zepbound also “enables a transparent price by removing third-party supply chain entities,” the company added in a release. 

There “will be no markups, and we believe that’s super important … that consumers have this predictability in terms of pricing,” Jonsson said. 

Patients with a valid prescription can purchase the single-dose vials from a new “self-pay pharmacy” section on the company’s direct-to-consumer site, LillyDirect. Eli Lilly is partnering with a third-party digital pharmacy, Gifthealth, which will process prescriptions electronically as well as package and send vials to eligible…