Drugmaker Eli Lilly is significantly lowering the prices of the two lowest doses of its blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound , it said Tuesday, in a move to expand access and ease supply constraints. Two key changes to how people get and use the cheaper medicine, however, might not be appealing to some patients. Under the new pricing plan, a month’s supply of the lowest dose, 2.
5 milligrams, will cost $399, while a month’s supply of the 5 mg dose will cost $549. That’s down from a monthly list price of $1,059, regardless of the dosage. The lower-cost doses will be offered only through Lilly’s telehealth platform, LillyDirect, however, and they won’t be covered by insurance, meaning patients will need to pay for them in cash.
Patients who opt for the lower-cost doses also won’t qualify for Lilly’s discount savings program. Lilly said it’s able to charge the lower price because the drug will be sold in vials rather than single-dose auto-injector pens, which means patients will need to draw the medicine out of the vial with a syringe. (The 2.
5 and 5 mg doses will still be available in the auto-injector pens as well, just not at the new discounted price.) Frustrated Zepbound users have been advocating for vial options for some time, as they believe Lilly’s ongoing supply problems stem from the complicated manufacturing process required for the auto-injector pens. Some patients have instead looked to compounded versions of the weight loss drug, which typically come in vials and are less expensive.
“These new vials not only help us meet the high demand for our obesity medicine, but also broaden access for patients seeking a safe and effective treatment option,” Patrik Jonsson, president of Lilly USA, said in a release. Lilly and Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic and Wegovy, have been under pressure to lower the cost of their hugely popular — but pricey — weight loss drugs. In July, President Joe Biden and Sen.
Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., the chair of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, wrote in an op-ed in USA Today that both drugmakers “must stop ripping off Americans with high drug prices.” In an interview in June, Sanders called the higher prices of Novo Nordisk’s medications “absurd” and said he was spearheading a public pressure campaign to get it to lower its prices.
Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen has agreed to testify before Sanders’ committee next month. Who can get the lower-cost vials? Lilly said the lower-cost vials of Zepbound will provide patients with another option, particularly people without insurance, those whose insurance won’t cover the cost of the drug or those who don’t qualify for the company’s discount savings program. Zepbound’s savings program excludes people on government-run insurance programs such as Medicare and Medicaid.
Doctors can send prescriptions for the vials to LillyDirect, which will ship them directly to patients, the company said. The vials will be available on LillyDirect in all 50 states, it said. Lilly will provide instructions on how to use the vials and will also make syringes available for purchase if people want them.
Dr. Christopher McGowan, a gastroenterologist who runs a weight loss clinic in North Carolina, said one issue he has had with using LillyDirect is supply. “We tried to utilize that when they first announced it, and they didn’t have any supply,” said McGowan, who spoke to NBC News on Monday and wasn’t told about Lilly’s new pricing announcement.
“It was no better than any other pharmacies.” Lilly says the move to vials should help free up supply. It has chosen to make only two of its six doses available for lower prices.
The 2.5 mg dose is considered the “starter” dose — the one patients take first before they move up to higher doses until they reach their so-called maintenance doses. McGowan said most patients in his practice stay on the 10 mg or 15 mg doses of Zepbound, although that often depends on supply.
He said that none of his patients use the 2.5 mg or 5 mg doses long-term but that he believes they would if the prices were lower. That having been said, “patients who are responding well to the high doses want to stay on the high doses,” he said.
“We don’t want to step down and risk weight recurrence.” For D Scott, 46, of Las Vegas, the vials will provide a new, lower-cost option once her Zepbound discount card runs out at the end of the year. Scott, who asked that only the initial of her first name be used, said she had been overweight her entire life.
After years of diet and exercising, she was prescribed Zepbound about a month ago. Her insurance doesn’t cover the medication, but she can get it for $550 a month out of pocket through Lilly’s discount savings program. However, the program runs until only the end of December, so she will need to either reapply — if Lilly offers it again — or pay the full cost herself afterward.
Still, Scott noted that she doesn’t like the idea of drawing the medication out of a syringe. “I also take medicines that make me a little shaky, so drawing out medicines is not ideal,” she said..
