The news: Novo Nordisk is dropping the cash-pay price of its blockbuster GLP-1 drugs Wegovy and Ozempic from $499 per month to $349 for existing patients. Novo is also offering the lowest doses of both drugs for $199 a month for the first two months to new self-pay patients through March 2026.

Why it matters: Novo is beating rival Eli Lilly to lower prices for GLP-1 drugs.

• Both companies will need to slash their prices in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) market next year, per the terms of their recent deals with the Trump administration—Novo is just getting a head start. Lilly agreed to drop its price for Zepbound by $50 for all doses next year on TrumpRx, aligning it more closely with Wegovy.
• Novo’s $349 monthly price for the highest dose of Wegovy now compares to Lilly’s $349 price for the starting dose of Zepbound. Higher doses of Zepbound cost up to $499 per month.
• Plus, Lilly’s lower Zepbound price only applies to vials as opposed to the more commonly preferred injector pen. Unlike the pre-loaded pens, patients must draw the medication from a vial.
• Ozempic, which is FDA-approved for type 2 diabetes but not weight loss, will still cost $499 a month for its highest dose for self-pay patients.

Novo is betting on lower prices to lure some patients away from Zepbound. Wegovy beat Zepbound to market with FDA approval for obesity, but Zepbound’s weekly US prescriptions were nearly double Wegovy’s last month, per Reuters tracking data. For context, Lilly’s tirzepatide has outperformed Novo’s semaglutide for weight loss in adults with obesity, a key factor in doctors’ prescribing decisions.

Implications for the GLP-1 market: Lower pricing is just one way Novo is trying to regain market share from Lilly. For instance, Novo has also lined up more distribution partnerships than Lilly with telehealth firms and leading retail pharmacies to expand access to its GLP-1s. Lilly has some similar deals, but none match the scale of Novo’s self-pay GLP-1 pricing, now available at roughly 70,000 US pharmacies.

However, Lilly’s D2C strategy for Zepbound is working. The drugmaker said that about 45% of new Zepbound prescriptions in Q3 are from the self-pay channel. It’s a signal that most patients who are prescribed Zepbound aren’t asking to switch to Wegovy. That could shift if the price gap between the two drugs widens.

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