Novo drops court fights to secure GLP-1 distribution, which will drive other telehealth brands to weigh pharma deals against legal risk.

The offering lets employers subsidize employees’ cash-pay price—sidestepping opaque PBM rebates and helping rein in rising pharmacy costs.

The cash-pay discount hub will offer fewer drugs than GoodRx and have limited reach, but drugmakers must still promote it to drive prescription volumes, especially for uninsured drugs.

D2C pharma brands must ensure their cash-pay programs and telehealth ties are transparent and compliant with anti-kickback laws.

Pharma companies see pricing concessions as the lesser of two evils, as the price cuts grant exemption from Trump’s tariffs on US drug imports.

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 betting on lower prices to lure some patients away from Zepbound. However, Lilly’s D2C strategy for Zepbound is working—the drugmaker said that about 35% of new Zepbound prescriptions 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.

Hours after online healthcare company Mangoceuticals claimed partnerships with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to provide discounted weight loss drugs to cash-pay customers, both drugmakers denied any affiliation. As GLP-1 compounders lose their pricing edge, smaller players must resist overstating their ties to Novo and Lilly. While any healthcare provider can prescribe Lilly’s or Novo’s GLP-1s, manufacturer-set discounts won’t be made available to companies that engage in misleading marketing.

Hims & Hers said on its recent earnings call that it’s in active talks with Novo Nordisk to make Wegovy available on Hims’ platforms. Hims and Novo both have an incentive to reignite their partnership. Hims’ pricing edge in the GLP-1 market is fading, while Novo could use GLP-1 sales from Hims’ sticky customer base to make up some of the market share it has recently lost to Lilly.

Eli Lilly is offering cash-pay pricing for its weight loss drug Zepbound at Walmart. This is the first time Lilly has offered a retail pharmacy pick-up option to customers who order Zepbound through LillyDirect. Walmart will soon be the only retail pharmacy where customers paying cash for Novo’s and Lilly’s GLP-1 weight loss drugs can pick up their prescriptions. This will help the company benefit from increased foot traffic as more of Lilly’s customers enter its stores.

The data: Around 2 in 5 employers and health plans will never consider covering GLP-1 drugs for obesity, according to a June 2025 report from Pharmaceutical Strategies Group. Our take: We don’t think a lack of insurance coverage for GLP-1s will lead to a market slowdown. Less generous insurance coverage of the drugs will force companies operating in the competitive cash-pay GLP-1 space to continue offering temporary discounts or lower their prices altogether.