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.

Obesity drugs are cost effective and provide good value despite high price tags, according to analysis from the Institute for Clinical Economic Review (ICER). It’s still early in the GLP-1 weight loss drug market with only two approved medicines, but a massive pipeline of more than 170 drugs in development. While Novo and Lilly have significantly dropped D2C prices, we think it’s going to take more competition in the market and different drug delivery methods to get to affordable and accessible pricing. Marketers should consider lower prices, but also digital tools to improve adherence, manage side effects, and offer lifestyle support.

The news: Eli Lilly’s stock plunged about 14% on Thursday as clinical results of its experimental obesity pill orforglipron fell short of Wall Street expectations. Our take: We think Lilly has the edge over Novo, despite Thursday’s market reversal due to Lilly’s obesity pill falling short in its trial. That’s likely just a near-term blip—12% weight loss in a little over a year validates that the medication is quite effective, especially when considering that most people would prefer a pill to injecting themselves. Lilly also has in its favor that Zepbound drives better weight loss results than Wegovy, while it faces less competition from the copycat GLP-1 market since semaglutide is more commonly compounded than tirzepatide.

The news: Novo Nordisk’s stock plunged over 20% on Tuesday after it cut full-year guidance, citing lower-than-expected sales growth for Wegovy, its blockbuster weight loss drug. Our take: Despite the recent slump, we think Novo is well positioned to rebound. It remains one of two dominant players in the weight loss drug space and is still posting profit growth, albeit below Wall Street expectations. With the US adult obesity rate expected to hit 50% by 2030, the market opportunity is huge. Meanwhile, regulators are likely going to make it more difficult for compounded drugs to be sold as long as brand-name forms stay off the FDA’s drug shortage list.

Self-pay patients can now get discounted Wegovy at retail pharmacies: It’s a smart play on the part of Novo Nordisk to make its GLP-1 available at pharmacies where most consumers still get their prescriptions. Will rival Eli Lilly follow suit?

UPS pushes into healthcare logistics: The company is renting out custom lab space near its main global air hub. Diagnostics companies will be able to consolidate their shipping operations and drive downstream cost-savings.

Eli Lilly and Ro join forces to offer lower price vials of Zepbound: Seeing competitors become business partners may seem surprising, but we detail why the deal makes sense for both parties.

Eli Lilly’s blockbuster GLP-1 sales fell short of expectations in Q3: The pharma giant blames wholesalers for not buying more drugs. We think the rise of compounded GLP-1s is also a factor.

Eli Lilly’s GLP-1 medication shortage ends: The host of players who offer compounded versions of the blockbuster drugs don’t have to worry—yet.

Kourtney Kardashian’s Lemme rolls out “GLP-1” weight loss supplement: The move is ingenious from a marketing perspective. But the brand could find itself in drugmakers’ crosshairs with already confusing marketing about the supplement’s key ingredient.