Novo Nordisk Follows Lilly In Wooing Patients Off Weight-Loss Copycats

Novo Nordisk announced that its online pharmacy will offer the blockbuster weight-loss drug Wegovy at a lower price for uninsured patients and those whose insurance does not cover the medication.

Novo Nordisk offers Wegovy in the same single-dose auto-injector pens as traditional retail channels. I Photo: Novo Nordisk

The move is part of an effort to attract customers who have been purchasing legal knockoff versions from telehealth providers such as Hims & Hers Health, Josh Nathan-Kazis and Janet H. Cho reported for Barron’s Daily.

The Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) February 21 declaration that Wegovy was no longer in shortage means that Hims & Hers will soon have to stop selling its copycat version.

As a result, the company will largely shift its weight-loss offerings to older, less-effective generic medications.

Novo Nordisk’s in-house pharmacy will sell Wegovy for $499 per month. While that is significantly higher than the $165 monthly price for Hims’ copycat version, it represents a substantial discount from Novo’s $1,350 list price.

Hims sold $225 million worth of its Wegovy knockoff in 2024 and hopes to build a lasting weight-loss business in the coming years.

Eli Lilly’s competing weight-loss drug, Zepbound, came off its own shortage in December. Lilly’s in-house pharmacy program prices the lowest dose of Zepbound at $349 per month, with higher doses reaching up to $699.

Unlike Lilly’s program, which sells lower-dose vials that require manual injection, Novo Nordisk offers Wegovy in the same single-dose auto-injector pens as traditional retail channels.

If Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly successfully convert patients who had relied on compounded alternatives to their lower-priced online pharmacy options, it could help reassure investors that their sky-high sales growth projections remain on track.