The news: GoodRx launched a program that lets employers subsidize certain prescriptions, such as GLP-1s, at discounted self-pay prices—bypassing traditional pharmacy benefit manager (PBM)-managed formularies.

How it works: Companies using GoodRx Employer Direct can provide employees with select high-cost brand-name drugs outside their traditional employer-sponsored insurance plans.

Employers contribute a set amount toward the medication based on the reduced cash-pay price offered via GoodRx, applied at the pharmacy counter. For example, Wegovy’s cash-pay price was recently lowered to start at $149—a cost that can now be shared between employers and employees through GoodRx’s program.

Why it matters: Employers have been paying steep prices to include high-cost medications like GLP-1s on their drug formularies, often without receiving sufficient rebates negotiated between PBMs and drugmakers. Relatedly, many employers lack full visibility into what they’re paying for drugs because PBM contracts are intentionally opaque.

Rising costs and opaque contracting practices have employers anticipating an 11% to 12% increase in their pharmacy costs heading into 2026, according to an August 2025 Business Group on Health survey.

• Many employers, especially smaller firms, are opting not to cover weight loss drugs in an effort to control costs.
• Just 16% of US employers with fewer than 1,000 workers cover GLP-1s for obesity, compared with 43% of those with 5,000+ employees, per a July 2025 KFF survey.
• Interviews with employer benefit leaders in KFF’s survey revealed GLP-1 spending increases of 30% to 50% YoY.

Implications for the pharma supply chain: With cash-pay GLP-1 prices dropping sharply, employers have a new, more cost-effective way to cover these drugs: sidestep the traditional pharma supply chain, secure better pricing than PBM terms, and gain greater transparency into pharmacy spending.

This strategy could help employers curb pharmacy costs while boosting worker satisfaction and retention, given the strong demand for GLP-1s among US consumers. Waltz Health, a digital health company that helps employers buy cheaper medications, recently rolled out a direct-to-employer sales option for weight loss drugs. GoodRx joins Waltz in this emerging space, with similar models likely to follow, targeting high-cost treatments as cash-pay prices fall.