Eli Lilly cuts cash prices of Zepbound weight loss drug vials on direct-to-consumer site

Eli Lilly on Monday said it is lowering the cash prices of single-dose vials of its blockbuster weight loss drug Zepbound on its direct-to-consumer platform, LillyDirect, building on efforts by the company and the Trump administration to make the medicine more accessible.

The announcement also comes weeks after chief rival Novo Nordisk unveiled additional discounts on the cash prices of its obesity and diabetes drugs. 

Starting Monday, cash-paying patients with a valid prescription can get the starting dose of Zepbound vials for as low as $299 per month on LillyDirect, down from a previous price of $349 per month. They can also access the next dose, 5 milligrams, for $399 per month and all other doses for $449 per month, down from $499 per month across those sizes. 

Zepbound carries a list price of roughly $1,086 per month. That price point, and spotty insurance coverage for weight loss drugs in the U.S., have been significant barriers to access for some patients. 

Eli Lilly’s announcement comes just weeks after President Donald Trump inked deals with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk to make their GLP-1 drugs easier for Americans to get and afford. The agreements will cut the prices the government pays for the drugs, introduce Medicare coverage of obesity drugs for the first time for certain patients and offer discounted medicines on the government’s new direct-to-consumer website launching in January, TrumpRx. 

But Eli Lilly’s deal with Trump centers around lowering the prices of a different form of Zepbound – a multi-dose pen – after it wins Food and Drug Administration approval. 

That means Eli Lilly’s Monday announcement around cutting prices on the existing single-dose vials could allow more patients to get discounted treatments more quickly. 

“We will keep working to provide more options — expanding choices for delivery devices and creating new pathways for access — so more people can get the medicines they need,” said Ilya Yuffa, president of Lilly USA and global customer capabilities, in a statement. 

Eli Lilly’s stock, which has climbed more than 36% this year, fell nearly 2% on Monday. Its meteoric rise due to the success of Zepbound and its diabetes injection Mounjaro vaulted it to becoming the first health-care company to hit a $1 trillion market value last month. Though cutting prices means lower revenue per medication sold, Eli Lilly’s sales — and shares — have continued to soar through past pricing announcements as demand balloons.

With single-dose vials, patients need to use a syringe and needle to draw up the medicine and inject it into themselves. Eli Lilly first introduced that form of Zepbound in August 2024. 

It’s unclear how many patients are currently using single-dose vials of Zepbound. But Eli Lilly previously said that direct-to-consumer sales now account for more than a third of new prescriptions of Zepbound. 

Novo Nordisk earlier this month lowered the price of its obesity drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic for existing cash-paying patients to $349 per month from $499 per month. That excludes the highest dose of Ozempic. 

The company also launched a temporary introductory offer, which will allow new cash-paying patients to access the two lowest doses of Wegovy and Ozempic for $199 per month for the first two months of treatment.