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

Starting next year, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly will sell their weight loss shots directly to employers, cutting out pharmacy benefit managers, per Bloomberg. This move further signals drugmakers’ push into direct sales, both to consumers and employers. More businesses will likely cover obesity drugs for their workers if they can achieve greater cost control of their offered benefits. And pharma supply chain middlemen could feel mounting pressure to shift further away from the prescription drug rebate model that so many in the industry decry.