The price of weight loss drugs is falling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wegovy and Zepbound, which both sell for a list price of more than $1,000 a month<\/a>, have long been out of reach for people without insurance or whose insurance refused to cover them. Among adults who take the medications, about half say it\u2019s difficult to afford the cost, according to\u2002a May\u2002<\/a>2024\u2002<\/a>survey by the health policy group KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Over the past several months, however, drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have introduced lower-cost options. There are some caveats \u2014 people must pay out of pocket, or the medication is sold in a vial rather than a prefilled injector pen<\/a> \u2014 but doctors and patients say the changes are long overdue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe cost has come down significantly,\u201d said Dr. Peminda Cabandugama, an endocrinologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Self-pay options<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In March, Novo Nordisk cut the price of all doses of Wegovy by 23% for people paying in cash<\/a>, dropping it from $650 to $499 per month for uninsured patients or those without coverage. (The list price of $1,349 stayed the same.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n It follows a similar move from Eli Lilly, which reduced Zepbound\u2019s starter dose to $349 and higher doses to $499<\/a> through its self-pay program, Lilly Direct. The discounted doses require patients to manually draw the medication from a vial with a syringe, adding an extra step compared to the prefilled injector pens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Experts point to several forces driving the falling prices: m<\/a>ounting pressure from the public and Congress<\/a> on drugmakers\u2019 pricing practices; competition from pharmacies, med spas and weight loss clinics offering cheaper compounded versions of the drugs<\/a> \u2014 although many of those are expected to be phased out this month; and the Food and Drug Administration\u2019s recent approval of a generic version of Victoza, an older GLP-1 medication that can start at a cost of around $350 for a month\u2019s supply. The generic, called liraglutide, is taken daily, unlike Wegovy and Zepbound, which are taken weekly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cabandugama said many of his patients typically paid around $1,500 a month out of pocket for brand names Wegovy and Zepbound, but in recent months they\u2019ve been able to get the same doses for around $400 a month or higher doses for around $500. Others switched from compounded versions to the brand-name drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of patients were thinking, \u2018I\u2019m paying this amount for compounding. I couldn\u2019t make this switch to the standardized versions,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cNow, we have the brand-name version of it for around the same cost.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shakira Grant, 41, of North Carolina, started using Lilly\u2019s self-pay program for Zepbound earlier this month after a change in her insurance made her ineligible for the company\u2019s coupon savings card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grant has been on a GLP-1 medication for three years \u2014 first Mounjaro, then Zepbound. (Both contain the same active ingredient tirzepatide<\/a>.) She\u2019s now paying $499 a month after previously paying around $550 with the savings card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Without the self-pay program, Grant said she would have had to stop taking the medication because her insurance doesn\u2019t cover it, and she couldn\u2019t afford the more than $1,000 out-of-pocket cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not the perfect solution, she said. Because Lilly doesn\u2019t offer all of its Zepbound doses through Lilly Direct, she\u2019s had to lower her dose from 15 milligrams to 10 mg. She has also found the process of drawing the medication up from a vial challenging after years of using prefilled injector pens. She said she wishes it were cheaper but that she\u2019s willing to pay the price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf there was not a backup option, I would have been left with a tough decision,\u201d Grant said. \u201cEither I tried to afford $1,000 per month or go without the drug cold turkey after being on it for three years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Expanded approvals<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Experts say that patients are beginning to pay less out of pocket not only because of the price drops, but also because of improved insurance coverage. The expanded approval of the drugs for conditions beyond diabetes and weight loss \u2014 including heart disease risk<\/a>,<\/a>\u2002for Wegovy<\/a>, and obstructive sleep apnea, for Zepbound<\/a> \u2014 has also persuaded more insurers to cover them, Cabandugama said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Elizabeth Kenly, 59, of Graham, North Carolina, said she asked her doctor this month to see if her insurance would cover Zepbound for sleep apnea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kenly had been using a compounded version of Zepbound, paying around $600 a month. But if her insurance approves the brand name, her monthly cost could drop to as little as $25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe savings, if covered by insurance, would be life-changing,\u201d Kenly said. \u201cI am still paying what is equivalent to a monthly care payment even with the compounded version.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Louis Aronne, a professor of metabolic research at Weill Cornell Medicine, said he\u2019s even noticed in even recent months that pharmacies have started bringing down the prices of the weight loss drugs. Aronne serves as a chief medical adviser for Veru, a company developing an experimental weight loss drug, and was the principal investigator in a Lilly trial for tirzepatide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey\u2019ve started to get really competitive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still a high cost<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, barriers remain: $400 to $500 is a significant amount of money for many people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou\u2019re talking $6,000 a year, and that is still probably more than insurers are paying right now\u201d with discounts, said Dr. David Rind, a primary care physician and the chief medical officer for the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review,\u202fa group that determines fair prices for drugs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf insurance is relying on the fact that not covering it will allow people to buy it out of pocket, as a primary care doctor, I have a lot of concerns about that,\u201d Rind said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese are actually great drugs,\u201d he said. \u201cFor all my complaining about the price, these are drugs that we should want to give to lots of people, but it\u2019s been really hard to see how we can afford them.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Rind said he doesn\u2019t expect prices to drop further anytime soon \u2014 not until other drugs in development are approved<\/a>, which likely won\u2019t happen for a few more years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The introduction of lower-priced options and expanding insurance coverage aren\u2019t always a win for patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Earlier this month, CVS Caremark announced<\/a> that it will now cover Wegovy under its pharmacy benefit plans \u2014 but it will no longer cover Zepbound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n