The price of weight loss drugs is falling, making them more accessible to consumers, and the price could get driven even lower.
Highly sought-after drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound both retail at roughly $1,000 each and have been difficult for people without insurance to obtain.
Despite the price drops, the drugs remain costly. Novo Nordisk cut the price of Wegovy by 23 percent for cash payments from $650 to $499 for uninsured patients or people without coverage. The drug’s list price of $1,349 has remained unchanged.
Meanwhile, Eli Lilly reduced Zepbound’s starter dose to $349 and higher doses to $499 after launching a self-pay program called Lilly Direct. The new doses require patients to manually draw medication from a vial with a syringe.
In prior years, people would pay about $1,500 a month for the drugs, but in recent months have been able to obtain the doses for roughly $400 to $500, according to NBC News.
A May 2024 survey from the health policy group KFF found that half of U.S. adults say it’s difficult to afford the medication.
Pressure from Congress and increased competition are some of the factors that led the drugmakers to reduce the cost. This has led to patients paying less out of pocket because they can afford the cheaper prices or their insurance now covers the drugs. More insurance plans have allowed for the drugs because they have been proven to treat heart disease risk and obstructive sleep apnea.
This month, a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found Zepbound outperformed Wegovy in a head-to-head clinical trial.
Dr David Rind, a primary care physician and the chief medical officer for the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, told NBC News: “You’re talking $6,000 a year, and that is still probably more than insurers are paying right now.”
He continued: “If 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…For all my complaining about the price, these are drugs that we should want to give to lots of people, but it’s been really hard to see how we can afford them.”
But Rind said not to expect dramatic price drops in the foreseeable future. He said those cuts are likely to come when other weight-loss drugs being developed are approved, which could take several years.
