Novo Nordisk is expanding its reach in the obesity medicines market by making its blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy available directly to certain patients for more than half off the product’s list price.
The new offering announced Wednesday is open to uninsured patients who pay for their medicines in cash as well as those whose insurance does not cover obesity drugs. Patients will still need a prescription for the once-weekly injectable drug. But rather going to a traditional pharmacy, patients will fill their prescriptions through NovoCare, a new online pharmacy set up by the Danish pharmaceutical giant.
NovoCare will supply all dosage strengths of Wegovy in single-dose injection pens that will be shipped directly to a patient’s home. The monthly price for Wegovy obtained through NovoCare is $499, which is a steep discount from the wholesale price of $1,349 for four Wegovy injection pens.
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Novo Nordisk reported 65.1 billion Danish krone (about $9.4 billion) in sales for obesity products in 2024, a 56% increase over sales in the prior year. The vast majority of that revenue came from Wegovy. The pharma giant wants to protect that revenue from competitors. Its new Wegovy offering is the latest salvo in the ongoing battle between makers of branded obesity drugs and compounding pharmacies.
Strong demand for both Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound led to shortages of those products. Compounding pharmacies pounced, taking market share with their custom-made, lower-cost versions of GLP-1 obesity drugs, some of which were sold online. Novo and Lilly have challenged the purity and quality of compounded obesity drugs, but these versions of their drugs were permitted as long as the drug shortages continued.
Late last month, the FDA declared the more than two-year shortage was over for products containing semaglutide, the main ingredient in Wegovy. The shortages for tirzepatide, the main ingredient in Zepbound, was declared resolved last December. Outsourcing Facilities Association, an organization that represents compounders, is suing the FDA for the moves, contending that shortages persist and the regulator’s actions were made without due process. Both suits are filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas.
Novo Nordisk’s NovoCare mirrors LillyDirect, a direct-to-patient digital health platform from Eli Lilly. Last August, LillyDirect added Zepbound as an offering for patients who don’t have insurance that covers obesity drugs. Vials of Zepbound are shipped directly to eligible patients, who must also obtain syringes to administer the drug themselves. After this new offering launched, Lee Brown of research firm Third Bridge told MedCity News that direct-to-patient sales enable pharma companies to use ecommerce to compete against compounders and circumvent traditional pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers.
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When Lilly initially unveiled this new Zepbound offering last year, only 2.5 mg and 5 mg doses were available, the lowest of the six doses available in injection pens. Last week, Lilly added 7.5 mg and 10 mg doses to the program. These new doses will cost $499 per month, which is a more than 50% discount from Zepbound available in injection pens. Lilly also cut the prices of the 2.5 mg vial to $349 per month, and the 5 mg vial to $499 per month.
NovoCare’s shipments of Wegovy will be fulfilled by CenterWell Pharmacy, the mail-order pharmacy business of health insurer Humana. Wegovy is not the only product offered through this new platform. NovoCare also lists Novo Nordisk diabetes products as well as the pharma giant’s drugs for growth-related disorders, hemophilia, and hyperoxaluria.
“Today, over 55 million people in the U.S. have coverage specifically for weight management medicines, and 90% of Wegovy® patients with coverage pay $0 to $25 a month for Wegovy,” Dave Moore, executive vice president, U.S. operations and global business development and president of Novo Nordisk, said in a prepared statement. “With NovoCare Pharmacy, patients and prescribers alike have another option that provides convenient access to all doses of real, FDA-approved Wegovy at a reduced cost in our high-quality pen.”
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