Pharmaceutical manufacturer Novo Nordisk on Wednesday announced it will be offering a direct-to-patient program for uninsured and underinsured individuals to be able to pay cash for its weight loss product Wegovy at a significantly reduced cost.
The drugmaker has named its new program NovoCare® Pharmacy, which will sell all dose strengths of Wegovy at $499 per month. According to the company, about 90 percent most patients pay a monthly copay of zero to $25 and this new program is aimed at eligible people who are uninsured or are on insurance plans that don’t cover obesity medicines.
The list price for one month’s supply of Wegovy is $1,349.
“NovoCare® Pharmacy expands the company’s toolkit of offerings to meet the diverse needs of people living with obesity,” the company said in a press release, noting this announcement comes on the heels of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently confirming that both Wegovy and Ozempic, forms of the GLP-1 medication semaglutide, are no longer in shortage.
Wegovy is a form of semaglutide indicated specifically for weight loss. One group of insured individuals who may not be able to access it are Medicare beneficiaries as the federal insurance program is still currently prohibited from covering weight loss drugs. Medicare enrollees can receive coverage for the medication if it is prescribed for its other indication, the reduced risk of cardiovascular death, heart attack and stroke.
While Wegovy and Ozempic were both listed on the FDA’s drug shortage list, compounding pharmacies were able to sell copycat versions of semaglutide at a significantly reduced price. These products were not FDA-approved and as such were not covered by insurers.
The agency’s guidelines do provide some time for patients who were using compounded drugs to transition to the FDA-approved versions of the drugs and this new program from Novo Nordisk appears to cater to individuals who were accustomed to getting semaglutide at a reduced rate without insurance.
The cost of compounded versions of semaglutide sold by online telehealth providers ranged from $150 to $280 for a month’s supply.
“Novo Nordisk continues to advance solutions for patients that improve affordability and access to our medicines, whether they have insurance or not. Today, over 55 million people in the U.S. have coverage specifically for weight management medicines, and 90% of Wegovy® patients with coverage pay $0 to $25 a month for Wegovy®,” said Dave Moore, president of Novo Nordisk Inc.
Eli Lilly, the manufacturer of the GLP-1 drug tirzepatide, similarly made a move last year to offer its in-demand drug at a reduced cost by providing an option of buying it in single-dose vials instead of in autoinjectors.
