An Eli Lilly and Company pharmaceutical manufacturing facility is pictured at 50 ImClone Drive in Branchburg, New Jersey, March 5, 2021. Portal/Mike Segar/File Photo Acquire License Rights
Dec 5 (Portal) – Eli Lilly (LLY.N) said on Tuesday that its recently approved obesity treatment, Zepbound, is now available in U.S. pharmacies and will cost $550 for customers whose health insurance does not cover the drug. dollars per month or could cost half the list price.
Zepbound is the latest entrant into the fast-growing weight-loss drug market, which is expected to grow to about $100 billion by the end of the decade.
Wall Street analysts expect Zepbound’s revenue to reach about $2 billion in 2024. Novo Nordisk’s powerful obesity drug Wegovy is expected to generate $7.3 billion in sales next year, according to Barclays analyst Emily Field.
Both drugs are GLP-1 agonists, a class originally developed to treat type 2 diabetes.
Zepbound has been added to the U.S. preferred drug list by at least one major pharmaceutical company, Cigna (CI.N).
Pharmacy benefit managers create lists or formularies of medications covered by insurance and reimburse pharmacies for patients’ prescriptions.
Lilly said its commercial savings card program is now available at pharmacy chains. Under the program, Zepbound could cost as little as $25 for patients whose insurance covers the drug and $550 for those whose insurance does not.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Zepbound in November and Lilly said it would hit the market after Thanksgiving.
Zepbound has a list price of $1,059.87 per month, compared to a list price of $1,349 per package for Novo’s hugely popular Wegovy.
Lilly’s obesity drug contains the same active ingredient, tirzepatide, as its previously approved diabetes drug Mounjaro, which has been used off-label for weight loss since its launch in 2022.
Shares of Eli Lilly have risen 60% this year ahead of Zepbound’s launch, and the drugmaker has secured the 10th spot on the list of the world’s most valuable publicly traded companies by market capitalization.
Reporting by Patrick Wingrove in New York and Manas Mishra and Khushi Mandowara in Bengaluru; Edited by Arun Koyyur and Alexander Smith
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Originally posted 2023-12-05 16:30:37.