The trend: Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are forging partnerships and taking other actions to lower prices of their blockbuster weight loss drugs.

• Novo is now offering Wegovy at a one-time $199 first-month rate. The discount is for cash-pay patients, who then pay $499 in subsequent months.
• Novo and Lilly each worked out a deal with Cigna’s pharmacy benefits manager (PBM) Evernorth that will cap members’ out-of-pocket costs for Wegovy and Zepbound at $200 per month.

Zooming out: Novo and Lilly previously dropped the price of their weight loss drugs for self-pay consumers who get prescriptions via the manufacturers' D2C platforms or telehealth partners. This started as a response to compounded weight loss drug prescriptions being offered for far cheaper than the pair’s branded GLP-1s.

Novo and Lilly are now partnering with PBMs to slash prices for people who use health insurance to pay for their GLP-1s.

• Novo and CVS Caremark struck a deal earlier this month that gives Wegovy preferred placement over Zepbound on the PBM’s commercial drug formularies. This could lower costs for Caremark’s employer and health plan customers that cover Wegovy, as well as their members.
• Similarly, Evernorth said its recent contract agreement with Novo and Lilly could result in GLP-1 cost savings of up to $3,600 a year for patients when compared with purchasing medications directly from the drug manufacturers’ D2C programs.

The big takeaway: The exorbitant prices of brand-name GLP-1s are being slashed across a range of purchasing channels.

• Estimated annual net prices for weight loss drugs have fallen ~35% since 2022, per an April 2025 Institute for Clinical and Economic Review report.
• Lowered net prices are primarily a result of drugmakers negotiating with PBMs.
• And it could signal that more health plans and employers will cover the drugs for weight loss—only about one-third currently do, per a 2024 Pharmaceutical Strategies Group report.