The news: Telehealth company LifeMD is partnering with Novo Nordisk to offer diabetes patients Ozempic for $499 per month. Patients can book virtual visits, get diagnostic testing, and have the medication shipped to their home via LifeMDs online platform.

Why it matters: Novo’s and Eli Lilly’s blockbuster GLP-1 drugs are becoming cheaper for consumers without health insurance, or whose plans don’t cover the medications.

Prices are being slashed for cash-pay consumers who use Novo’s or Lilly’s online pharmacies or who get a prescription from one of the drugmakers’ telehealth partners.

• List prices of the most commonly prescribed GLP-1s are $1,000 per month and up.
• Novo dropped the cash-pay price of Wegovy to $499 when it launched its D2C pharmacy earlier this year. In August, Novo dropped the price of Ozempic to the same $499 price via a tie-up with GoodRx.
• Lilly’s weight loss drug Zepbound is also priced at $499 for consumers who get prescriptions via LillyDirect or the manufacturer’s telehealth partners.

Our first take: GLP-1 price wars are taking place between drugmakers and online healthcare companies selling compounded weight loss medications. Novo and Lilly likely figured they would control the GLP-1 market by choosing which telehealth platforms to offer discounted medication access through, while cutting out players like Hims & Hers that continue to sell knockoff versions of manufacturers’ branded drugs.

Novo’s and Lilly’s brand-name products have the stamp of FDA approval in their favor, but many cost-conscious consumers paying out-of-pocket will continue to opt for the cheaper compounded GLP-1s (~$200 per month) as long as they’re still legally allowed to be sold.

This is our immediate perspective. We’re actively developing this story throughout the day with more research and data from the EMARKETER database. Our in-depth analysis will be included in our client-only Briefings. Non-clients can click here to get a demo of our full platform and coverage.

Check out other EMARKETER content related to this story:

• Novo Nordisk drops Ozempic self-pay price to $499 per month
• Weight loss telehealth provider Noom introduces microdoses of GLP-1 drugs
• Eli Lilly tells telehealth partners they can’t sell compounded weight loss drugs
• Hims & Hers’ weight loss business takes a big hit as Novo Nordisk terminates their brief tie-up
• Weight loss drug prices are dropping as pharma players partner to improve patient access