The news: Telehealth company LifeMD is partnering with Novo Nordisk to offer diabetes patients Ozempic for $499 per month. Patients can book virtual visits, get diagnostic testing, and have the medication shipped to their home via LifeMD’s online platform.

Why it matters: Novo and Eli Lilly are offering their blockbuster GLP-1s at cheaper rates for consumers without health insurance, or those whose plans don’t cover the medications.

• List prices of the most commonly prescribed GLP-1s are $1,000 per month and up.
• Novo dropped the cash-pay price of Wegovy to $499 when it launched its D2C pharmacy earlier this year. In August, Novo dropped the price of Ozempic to the same $499 price via a tie-up with GoodRx.
• Lilly’s weight loss drug Zepbound is also priced at $499 for consumers who get prescriptions via LillyDirect or the manufacturer’s telehealth partners.

Our take: GLP-1 price wars are taking place between drugmakers and online healthcare companies selling compounded weight loss medications.

So far, compounded GLP-1 sellers like Hims & Hers appear to have the edge. Many cost-conscious consumers paying out-of-pocket will continue to opt for the cheaper compounded GLP-1s (~$200 per month) as long as they’re still legally allowed to be sold. Novo recently acknowledged that the copycat GLP-1 market is “of equal size” to Novo’s business—-probably attributable to the lower cost of compounded drugs.

Plus, Ozempic is only FDA-approved to treat type 2 diabetes, so its FDA stamp of approval doesn’t translate to the obesity market. Diabetes disproportionately affects seniors, and Medicare plans commonly cover Ozempic for this condition. Novo could be hoping that younger consumers will ante up for cash-pay Ozempic, but that depends on doctors’ willingness to prescribe the drug for off-label use (as opposed to Wegovy, which is approved for weight loss).

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