Wegovy pill's lead over Foundayo signals drug marketers need to build consumer and healthcare provider brand awareness before launch.

Grocery spending falls while apparel gets a lift from changing wardrobes.

Reduced employer coverage of weight loss drugs could push patients to cash-pay options or off treatment, increasing pressure on pharma companies to lower prices.

Pharma execs detail strategies for gov’t pricing deals, countering vaccine skepticism, and driving D2C sales at FT’s US Pharma and Biotech Summit.

It generated nearly $20 billion sales in Q1, led by GLP-1 brands Mounjaro and Zepbound, positioning it ahead of a pill rivalry with Novo.

Their ad budgets are shifting from linear TV to digital channels like CTV and social media, but big TV events still garner significant spending.

It rolled out a direct-to-employer payment model aimed at expanding weight loss drug access at work with flat pricing.

Data shows the first decline in obesity rates in US adults, but children and teens moved in the opposite direction.

Weight loss hype pushed Lilly well ahead of Novo, yet Novo’s early pill win signals a turn toward more affordable, convenient obesity treatments.

Weight and health improvements vanish within two years without sustained use, new research finds.

As more Americans take weight loss drugs, eating, shopping, and healthcare expectations are all evolving

Eli Lilly is dropping the price of its weight loss drug Zepbound for cash-pay customers, following rival Novo Nordisk’s price cut less than two weeks ago. Lilly and Novo’s newly lowered D2C prices will help some cash-pay consumers, but the affordability gap is a major barrier to broader adoption.

Novo Nordisk has applied for approval of a higher-dose version of its weight loss drug Wegovy using a special FDA review pathway for a faster decision. Novo’s move to introduce a higher-dose Wegovy shifts competitive expectations in the weight loss category in terms of speed and effectiveness, with over 20% weight loss becoming the new benchmark for success.

Eli Lilly became the first healthcare or pharma company to reach a $1 trillion valuation. Pharma’s entry into “the trillion-dollar club” is largely driven by success in the obesity treatment category that’s poised to reshape consumer health and wellness. However, Lilly’s particular rapid growth signals that while first-mover advantage in a high-demand disease area matters, it doesn’t guarantee staying on top. Pharma manufacturers can make up for not being first by committing to innovative drug development that drives more efficacious products, pursuing new clinical indications, and correctly anticipating market developments that may impact supply and demand.

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.

Eli Lilly will no longer offer CVS Health’s prescription drug benefit plan for its employees, per Bloomberg. Lilly may have been considering another pharmacy benefits manager outside of this news. But it’s more likely that CVS’ choice to promote a rival drug (Wegovy) over Zepbound was Lilly’s breaking point—showing that even employee benefit plans can be used as leverage in the battle for weight loss drug dominance.

Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly struck a deal with the Trump administration to lower GLP-1 prices in exchange for expanded Medicare and Medicaid coverage. It’s by far the most consequential pharma agreement to date For Novo and Lilly, it’s a tradeoff: lower prices for higher patient and prescription volume—a bet that should pay off over time, especially since tariff relief is part of the deal.

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.

President Donald Trump remarked late last week that the cost of brand-name GLP-1 drugs could drop to $150 in the US. Trump didn’t detail which insurance markets the lower-cost GLP-1s would apply to, or how he plans to force Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to drop their prices. With prescriptions surging, GLP-1 drugmakers must prepare for tougher scrutiny and calls from the government, doctors, and patients alike to make treatments more affordable. Pharma marketers should intensify messaging around their weight loss drugs being cost-effective over the long haul by preventing more serious chronic diseases.

Doctors started paying more attention to information and ads for new weight loss drugs months before they began prescribing them, according to research from ZoomRx. The study tracked obesity health-related web browsing and ad exposures for 279 healthcare providers on digital channels and 204 on TV and connected TV. Pharma companies need to find where doctors are searching or reading about Rx drugs and how their interest in a drug’s information is changing, even before the sales numbers are in. Track Reddit forums and physician social media channels like Sermo and Doximity to gauge behaviors and attitudes and shift marketing plans to meet them. Use sales reps and peer-led webinars to capture early interest—and keep refreshing that marketing with updated data and patient results as competing entrants begin to pull attention away.