A Glimmer Of Competition in Semiglutide GLP-1 Drugs

Big Pharma reliably raises the prices of their drugs under patent relentlessly, every year, up to the time when their patent runs out.  In a departure from this practice, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have cut the prices of Wegovy and Zepbound, two of their most popular prescription drugs, even though their patents run to 2031.  Their rationale for price cuts on these drugs is opaque, but their high cost and popularity has wrecked the finances of most health care insurers:

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/novo-nordisk-offer-lower-priced-versions-wegovy-cash-paying-customers-2025-03-05/

Novo Nordisk to sell Wegovy for $499 a month to cash-paying US customers
By Patrick Wingrove and Manas Mishra - March 5, 2025

March 5 (Reuters) - Novo Nordisk (NOVOb.CO) said on Wednesday it would begin selling its weight-loss drug Wegovy at a discounted price of $499 per month to patients paying cash, as it grapples with shifts to the competitive dynamic of the U.S. obesity drug market.

The move comes just over a week after rival Eli Lilly (LLY.N) cut the price for vials of its weight-loss drug Zepbound by $50 or more and expanded the range of doses sold online through its direct-to-consumer website.

Eli Lilly began offering vials of the two lowest doses of Zepbound, which is typically sold in autoinjector pens, in August. It now sells vials of all but the two highest-strength doses of the drug through LillyDirect. The lowest dose costs $349 a month and the others cost $499 a month.

Novo said its discounted Wegovy would be available in pens of all dosage strengths to uninsured patients or eligible patients with commercial insurance who do not have coverage for obesity medicines through its NovoCare Pharmacy program.

The Danish drugmaker will also offer home delivery for the drug, which can cost patients more than $1,000 a month if they do not have health insurance coverage.

U.S.-listed shares of Novo were up 4.2% to $91.16 in morning trading.

Compounding pharmacies that have been selling hundreds of thousands of doses of copies of Wegovy while the medicines were in shortage are also running out of time to produce them.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration in February removed Wegovy from its shortage list and told compounders to cease selling their cheaper copies in the coming months, having removed Zepbound in December.

"With both LillyDirect and NovoCare established, both Lilly and Novo look to cut out compounding pharmacies, which have taken some of their product's sizable demand," BMO analyst Evan Seigerman said in a research note.

Drug compounders led by industry trade group Outsourcing Facilities Association sued the FDA last month over its decision to remove Wegovy from its list of drugs in shortage. They previously sued over the agency's declaration that Lilly's tirzepatide drugs, including Zepbound, were no longer in short supply.

The FDA said last month that some compounding pharmacies had until the court makes its decision in the earlier case to stop selling compounded tirzepatide, but has not said whether the same deadline applies to copies of Wegovy.

Shares of telehealth provider Hims & Hers , which sells compounded versions of Wegovy, fell 4.2% to $38.76 in morning trading. The company's stock nearly tripled last year, giving it a market capitalization of $9 billion.