The price of Wegovy, a widely used weight-loss medication made by Novo Nordisk, has been cut to $499 per month across all dosage levels. This reduction is available via NovoCare Pharmacy, the company’s new patient delivery service, and applies specifically to uninsured patients or those without obesity medication coverage as part of their insurance plans. Prior to this reduction, the monthly out-of-pocket cost for the drug was $650, as per the company's website.
This pricing adjustment comes in the wake of a recent FDA ruling: the key ingredient in Wegovy and another Novo Nordisk weight-loss treatment, Ozempic, is no longer considered scarce. This adjustment also follows a similar action taken by Eli Lilly, a rival pharmaceutical company, which lowered the price of its weight-loss medication Zepbound for patients paying out of pocket after a similar FDA decision.
It is noteworthy that Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are major players in the weight-loss market, a sector that Goldman Sachs analysts reportedly predict could be worth $130 billion by 2030. Despite a nearly 4% intraday surge in the share price of Novo Nordisk on Wednesday, the company's stock has depreciated roughly 25% in the past year. Please note the announcement about the price cut was made by Novo Nordisk on Wednesday; earlier versions of this story incorrectly reported the day.