Eli Lilly Halves Zepbound Price In New Version Of Weight-Loss Drug

Eli Lilly and Company ( LLY ) has launched a new dosage form of its weight-loss drug Zepbound at roughly half the price of its traditional price, aiming to reach more patients who don't have health insurance while also fighting off generics.

Eli Lilly will offer 2.5 mg and 5 mg single-dose Zepbound through its Web site at a monthly cost of $399 and $549, respectively. By comparison, the list price without insurance and discounts is about $1,000 per month.

Patients will need to self-inject using the new Zepbound syringe. The current version uses a single-dose auto-injector pen, which allows patients to inject directly under the skin with the touch of a button.

Eli Lilly says the vials are easier to manufacture than auto-injector pens, so they will increase the availability of Zepbound. While the lower cost may drive down Lilly's average Zepbound sales price in the short term, the additional sales of the vials “could have a positive impact on Lilly's sales results.”

Lilly's announcement on Zepbound's cardiovascular benefits comes on the heels of a recent study that found that a group of obese patients using Lilly's Mounjaro (the core ingredient in Tirzepatide), a drug that combines weight loss with diabetes treatment, had a more favorable outcome than a group using Novo Nordisk's Ozempic (the core ingredient in Ozempic), a drug that combines both weight loss and diabetes treatment. Ozempic (Semaglutide), a Novo Nordisk drug that also combines weight loss and diabetes treatment, showed significantly more weight loss than the group of obese patients using Ozempic (Semaglutide), a Novo Nordisk drug that also combines weight loss and diabetes treatment.

A Goldman Sachs forecast shows that the global anti-obesity drug market could grow to around $130 billion in annual sales by 2030, compared with just $6 billion earlier in 2023. The World Obesity Federation (WOF) predicts that by 2035, more than 4 billion people (more than half the size of the world's population) could be suffering from varying degrees of obesity.