Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy weight reduction drug has seen a meteoric rise in popularity.
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Novo Nordisk on Wednesday said it’ll offer its weight reduction drug Wegovy for lower than half of its usual price per thirty days through a latest direct-to-consumer online pharmacy.
The cash-pay offering is accessible to thousands and thousands of patients without insurance coverage for the blockbuster injection. It goals to make Wegovy available to more people, while also ensuring that patients use the branded medication as an alternative of cheaper compounded copycats that exploded in popularity during a recently resolved U.S. shortage of Novo Nordisk’s drug.
The pharmacy, called NovoCare, will allow patients to pay $499 in money per thirty days for the weekly drug. Wegovy’s list price before insurance and other rebates is sort of $1,350 per thirty days.
The location may also ship Wegovy prescriptions on to patients’ homes through a specialty pharmacy partner. NovoCare will even offer refill reminders and access to live support from a case manager at the corporate, amongst other patient support services.
“Patients and prescribers alike have another choice that gives convenient access to all doses of real, FDA-approved Wegovy at a reduced cost in our high-quality pen,” Dave Moore, executive vice chairman of U.S. operations and global business development, said in a press release.
Notably, the corporate said within the “near future” it’ll extend the brand new savings offer for Wegovy to cash-paying patients who use traditional retail pharmacies in order that they may also pay a cheaper price.
The Danish drugmaker’s move follows the same strategy from its fundamental rival Eli Lilly. The 2 corporations are fighting to dominate the marketplace for so-called GLP-1s, which mimic certain gut hormones to suppress appetite and regulate blood sugar.
Eli Lilly in January 2024 launched its own direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, LillyDirect, to assist patients access its weight reduction drug Zepbound.
The web site allows eligible patients to get a prescription through a telehealth provider and may provide home delivery. More recently, LillyDirect also began offering Zepbound in single-dose vials which are half and even lower than its usual $1,000 monthly list price.
In recent months, the Food and Drug Administration has declared the U.S. shortages of each Zepbound and Wegovy over. That call will prevent certain compounding pharmacies from creating unapproved versions of the injections.
NovoCare helps patients “avoid the numerous risks that could be posed by the compounding marketplace, as warned by respected organizations, experts within the medical community, and the FDA,” Novo Nordisk said in a press release.
