Eli Lilly launches lower-cost weight loss drug

  • 2 months ago
Eli Lilly will now sell cheaper vials of weight loss drug Zepbound in order to meet increased demand.
Transcript
00:00I'm Conway Gittins reporting from the New York Stock Exchange, here's what we're watching
00:03on the street today.
00:04The Dow squeezed out a gain to set a record-closing high for the second day in a row.
00:10The move was not big, however, with investors unwilling to make major moves ahead of Nvidia's
00:15quarterly numbers.
00:16The AI chip giant will release results on Wednesday, and it's not alone.
00:21Salesforce, CrowdStrike, and HP will report as well.
00:25In other business headlines, Eli Lilly has launched a direct-to-consumer dosage of its
00:30popular weight loss drug, ZepBound, and this version is about half the price.
00:35Now there's a four-week supply of 2.5 mg single-dose vials for $399 a month and a 5 mg dose for
00:44$549.
00:45ZepBound is one of the new successful GLP-1 weight loss drugs on the market.
00:51Lilly is hoping to cut out counterfeiters, copycats, and various telehealth medicine
00:55companies that are providing this blockbuster class of drugs to millions of Americans without
01:00health coverage.
01:01In a statement, Eli Lilly said,
01:04Distributing the vials via this channel ensures patients and providers can trust they are
01:09receiving genuine Lilly medicine, building on the company's efforts to help protect the
01:14public from the dangers posed by the proliferation of counterfeit, fake, unsafe, or untested
01:21knockoffs of Lilly's medications.
01:24Patients with a prescription who want to purchase ZepBound directly from Eli Lilly will be able
01:28to do so via Lilly Direct, which is partnering with a third-party digital pharmacy called
01:33Gift Health.
01:34This direct-to-consumer model also opens up a new consumer base since Medicare does not
01:39cover GLP-1s and some private health insurance providers don't either.
01:44That however has not stopped their popularity.
01:47Weight loss drugs like ZepBound, Monjaro, and Wegovy cost about $1,000 a month before
01:53insurance and other rebates.
01:56That'll do it for your daily briefing from the New York Stock Exchange.
01:59I'm Conway Gittens with the Street.

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