MW Eli Lilly cuts price of weight-loss drug Zepbound as competition heats up

By Ciara Linnane

Lilly is launching two new doses and cutting prices for self-paying customers

Eli Lilly & Co. said Tuesday it's cutting the price of single-dose vials of its Zepbound treatment for diabetes and obesity for patients who have to pay for the drug themselves. It said it will also be adding two new doses, as competition in the space continues to heat up.

The move came just days after a regulatory ruling that there's no longer a shortage of weight-loss drugs that had allowed for alternatives to be made, sending the stock of telehealth provider Hims & Hers Health Inc. sharply lower.

Hims & Her's shares $(HIMS)$ tumbled another16% Tuesday, after the company told investors on its late Monday earnings call that it would no longer be offering semaglutide - the chemical name for the medication in Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy - after the first quarter.

Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk currently dominate the market for the new class of GLP-1 receptor agonist medications, which work by mimicking the effect of a gut hormone that reduces appetite. Under FDA rules, Hims & Hers was allowed to use compounding pharmacies to offer semaglutide as long as there were shortages and a high patient need.

Against that background, Lilly is launching 7.5-milligram single-dose vials and 10-milligram single-dose vials of its obesity drug Zepbound, both for $499 a month.

The drug giant $(LLY)$ is also reducing the price of its 2.5-milligram and 5-milligram vials of Zepbound, a drug that has become popular with patients but has also been criticized for its high cost.

Lilly said it would lower the price of the 2.5-milligram dose to $349 a month and the price of the 5-milligram dose to $499 a month.

"Every major medical organization and establishment recognizes obesity as a chronic disease, yet insurance and federal programs do not systematically cover people living with obesity for medical care - this needs to change," said Patrik Jonsson, executive vice president of Eli Lilly and president of Lilly Cardiometabolic Health and Lilly USA.

The company's 7.5-milligram and 10-milligram doses come with refills that come within 45 days of prior delivery.

The head of the Obesity Action Coalition praised the move and Lilly for "improving the affordability of obesity treatment."

Zepbound is currently available in doses of 12.5 milligrams and 15 milligrams in a single-dose pen, or autoinjector. The recommended maintenance doses are 5 milligrams, 10 milligrams or 15 milligrams, injected once weekly.

Patients starting the treatment are given 2.5 milligrams for four weeks before increasing the dosage to 5 milligrams.

While Lilly and Novo Nordisk $(NVO)$ (DK:NOVO.B) are leaders in the field for now, many other companies are also racing to develop therapies, including an oral version that would be easier to administer than the current injectable drug.

Lilly and Novo Nordisk, meanwhile, are studying the drugs for a range of health issues relating to obesity that may lead insurers and federal programs to offer coverage.

Read now: What's next for hot biotech stock Viking Therapeutics? Here's how the company can scale up.

Lilly's stock rose 2.6% in early trading Tuesday and has gained 17.5% in the last 12 months, while the S&P 500 SPX has gained 17.6% in that period.

-Ciara Linnane

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February 25, 2025 10:18 ET (15:18 GMT)

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