Novo Nordisk said Wednesday it will begin selling its weight loss drug Wegovy at a discounted $499 per month to cash-paying patients as it is working towards a transition to competitive dynamics in the US obesity drug market.
The move comes more than a week after rival Eli Lily cuts the price of weight loss pill vials by $50 or more, expanding the range of doses sold online through direct consumer websites.
Eli Lilly began offering two lowest-dose Zepbound vials that are normally sold in August with automatic injector pens.
Currently, we sell all vials through Lillydirect except for the two highest strength doses. The minimum dose costs $349 a month, while the others cost $499 a month.
Novo said it will make it available to all doses of pen to patients with no commercial insurance or eligible patients who do not cover obesity medication through the Novocare Pharmacy Program.
Danish drugmakers also provide home delivery of the drug. This can cost patients over $1,000 a month if they don't have health insurance.
NOVO's US list stocks rose 4.2% in morning trading to $91.16.
While the drug is shortage, pharmacies selling copies of Wegovy at hundreds of thousands of doses are also running out of time to produce them.
In February, the Food and Drug Administration told Comparsenaz to remove it from Wegovy's shortfall list, remove Zepbound in December and stop selling cheap copies in the coming months.
“With both Lillydirect and Novocare established, both Lilly and Novo are trying to cut out a combined pharmacy that has a significant demand for their products,” BMO analyst Evan Seigerman said in a research note.
The drug complex, led by the Industry and Trade Group's Outsourcing Facilities Association, sued the FDA last month over a decision to remove Wegovy from its shortage of drug list.
They previously appealed to the agency's declaration that Lily's tilzepatide drugs, including Zepbound, are no longer deficient.
The FDA said last month that some compound pharmacies had set aside the sale of compound tilzepatide until the court ruled in previous cases, but did not say whether the same deadline would apply to copies of Wegovy.
Shares in Telehealth Provider Hims & Hers, which sells a combined version of Wegovy, fell 4.2% to $38.76 in morning trading.
The company's stock almost tripled last year, giving it a market capitalization of $9 billion.
