An injection pen of Zepbound, Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug, is displayed in New York City on Dec. 11, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Eli Lilly on Tuesday released higher doses of its weight loss drug Zepbound in single-dose vials at as much as half its usual monthly list price to reach more patients without insurance coverage for the blockbuster injection, such as those with Medicare.
It expands the company’s effort to boost the U.S. supply of Zepbound as demand soars, and to ensure eligible patients are safely accessing the real treatment instead of cheaper compounded versions.
Eli Lilly is now offering higher doses of Zepbound in single-dose vials through a “self-pay pharmacy” section on its direct-to-consumer website, LillyDirect, which began offering lower doses of the drug in vials in August. Eligible patients diagnosed by a health-care provider with obesity alone or along with obstructive sleep apnea — Zepbound’s newly approved use — can pay for those vials themselves on the site.
The company is selling 7.5 milligram and 10 milligram vials of Zepbound for $499 per month when patients fill their first prescription, and any time they refill within 45 days of their previous delivery. Otherwise, those two doses will cost $599 and $699, respectively.
Also on Tuesday, Eli Lilly said it is lowering the price of both of the lower-dose vials of Zepbound by $50. The 2.5 milligram vial will now cost $349, and the 5 milligram vial will now be priced at $499, according to a release.
Patients must use a syringe and needle to draw up the medicine from a single-dose vial and inject themselves. That differs from single-dose autoinjector pens, the currently available form of all Zepbound doses, which patients can directly inject under their skin with the click of a button.
Eli Lilly has said those vials will make more of the medication available because they are easier to manufacture than autoinjector pens, which cost roughly $1,000 per month before insurance.
Patients typically start treatment with a 2.5 milligram dose for four weeks, then gradually increase the amount per week and later take so-called maintenance doses to keep the weight off. Eli Lilly does not currently offer the highest doses of Zepbound — 12.5 milligrams and 15 milligrams — in single-dose vials.
The lower price points for each of the single-dose vials will benefit patients who are willing to pay for Zepbound themselves and are enrolled in Medicare or employer-sponsored health plans that do not cover obesity treatments.
“We are, in the absence of full coverage for people suffering from obesity like other chronic diseases, we are just trying to fill that room and provide a more affordable solution, particularly for the Medicare population because none of our affordability solutions can be applied to them,” said Patrik Jonsson, president of Eli Lilly diabetes and obesity, in an interview.
Medicare beneficiaries are also not eligible for Eli Lilly’s savings card programs for Zepbound. Jonsson said “in an ideal world,” the Trump administration will enact a proposed rule from the Biden administration to have Medicare cover obesity medications. Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been skeptical of weight loss drugs.
Some people turned to compounding pharmacies that make even cheaper copies of Zepbound because the branded treatment has been too costly and was in shortage until recent months. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has since declared the Zepbound shortage over, however, which will soon bar many compounding pharmacies from making those versions of the drug.
Jonsson said Eli Lilly is “not price competing with the compounders,” adding that the company does not believe “there is still a market for the mass compounding anymore.”
He said Tuesday’s announcement helps to ensure that patients “don’t rely on knockoffs that are not approved by the FDA for safety, efficacy and quality.”
Progress of Zepbound vial launch
Eli Lilly declined to say how many patients are ordering vials from LillyDirect so far, but Jonsson said “the uptake has been really good.”
He said Zepbound prescriptions filled through LillyDirect’s self-pay pharmacy, which offers the single-dose vials, likely account for a low- to mid-single-digit percentage of the broader obesity market.
Around 10% of new patients in the obesity market who start a treatment are using Zepbound through LillyDirect’s self-pay pharmacy, Jonsson added. He said launching vials of the 7.5 milligram and 10 milligram doses will add to that number.
LillyDirect, which launched in January 2024, connects people with an independent telehealth company that can prescribe certain drugs if the patients are eligible. The site also offers a home-delivery option if the prescribed treatment is Eli Lilly’s, tapping a third-party online pharmacy to fill prescriptions and send them directly to patients.
In December, direct-to-consumer health-care startup Ro said its platform will also offer single-dose vials of Zepbound through a new partnership with Eli Lilly.
