An Zepbound injection enclosure, Eli Lilly’s weight loss medication, is displayed in New York on December 11, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Eli Lilly Tuesday, released higher doses of his medication on Zepbound weight loss in single dose bottles to half of his usual monthly price to reach more patients without insurance coverage for successful injection, such as Those with Medicare.
It widens the efforts of the company to stimulate the American offer of Zepbound as demand arrows and to ensure that eligible patients are safely accessing real treatment instead of cheaper compound versions.
Eli Lilly now offers higher doses of Zepbound in single dose bottles via a “self-paying pharmacy” section on his direct consumer website, Lillydirect, which began to offer lower doses of the drug drugs in August in August . Eligible patients diagnosed by a health care provider with obesity alone or with obstructive sleep apnea – the newly approved use of Zepbound – can pay the bottles themselves on the site.
The company sells 7.5 milligrams and 10 bottles of Zepbound milligrams for $ 499 per month when patients fill their first prescription, and each time they fill up within 45 days of their previous delivery. Otherwise, these two doses will cost $ 599 and $ 699 respectively.
Also on Tuesday, Eli Lilly said that it reduced the price of the two low -dose bottles of $ 50. The 2.5 milligrams bottle will now cost $ 349, and the 5 milligrams bottle will now be at a price of $ 499, according to a press release.
Patients should use a syringe and needle to write the medication from a single dose bottle and inject. Which differs from single dose injector pens, the currently available shape of all Zepbound doses, which patients can inject directly under their skin by clicking on a button.
Eli Lilly said that these bottles would put more drugs available because they are easier to make than self-injector pens, which cost $ 1,000 per month before insurance.
Patients generally start treatment with a dose of 2.5 milligrams for four weeks, then gradually increase the amount per week and later take so -called maintenance doses to maintain the weight. Eli Lilly does not currently offer the highest doses of Zepbound – 12.5 milligrams and 15 milligrams – in single dose bottles.
The lower prices for each of the single dose bottles will benefit patients who are ready to pay for Zepbound themselves and are registered with health plans sponsored by health insurance or the employer who do not cover the treatments of ‘obesity.
“We are, in the absence of full coverage for people with obesity like other chronic diseases, we simply try to fill this part and provide a more affordable solution, especially for the people of Medicare because none of our Accessibility solutions cannot 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 programs for Zepbound. Jonsson said that “in an ideal world”, the Trump administration will adopt a proposed rule from the Biden administration for Medicare to cover the obesity of drugs. The Secretary of the US Department of Health and Social Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was skeptical about weight loss drugs.
Some people have turned to aggravated pharmacies that make even cheaper copies of Zepbound because the brand treatment was too expensive and was shortened until the last months. The US Food and Drug Administration has since declared that the Zepbounds shortage, however, soon prohibited many pharmacies for the manufacture of these versions of the drug.
Jonsson said that Eli Lilly was “not the price in competition with the compounds”, adding that the company does not believe “there is still a market for the mass aggravated”.
He said Tuesday’s announcement was helping to guarantee that patients “do not count on imitations that are not approved by the FDA for safety, efficiency and quality”.
Progress of the launch of the Zepbound bottle
Eli Lilly refused to say how many patients have been ordering Lillydirect so far, but Jonsson has said that “absorption has been really good”.
He said that Zepbound’s prescriptions filled with the Lillydirect self-paying pharmacy, which offers single dose bottles, probably explain a percentage of low and larger obesity market.
About 10% of new patients on the obesity market who start treatment use Zepbounds via the Lillydirect self-paying pharmacy, Jonsson added. He said the launch of 7.5 milligrams and 10 milligrams doses will add to this number.
Lillydirect, launched in January 2024, connects people to an independent remote variety company which can prescribe certain drugs if patients are eligible. The site also offers a home delivery option if the prescribed treatment is Eli Lilly, pressing a third -party online pharmacy to fill out the prescriptions and send them directly to patients.
In December, the direct health care startup to consumers said its platform will also offer single dose bottles from Zepbound via a new partnership with Eli Lilly.