As costs of weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound go down, how low can prices go?

Weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound are getting cheaper, if you are willing to pay out of pocket for the medications.

The price of weight loss drugs is falling.

Wegovy and Zepbound, which both sell for a list price of more than $1,000 a month, have long been out of reach for people without insurance or whose insurance refused to cover them. Among adults who take the medications, about half say it’s difficult to afford the cost, according to a May 2024 survey by the health policy group KFF.

Over the past several months, however, drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly have introduced lower-cost options. There are some caveats — people must pay out of pocket, or the medication is sold in a vial rather than a prefilled injector pen — but doctors and patients say the changes are long overdue.

“The cost has come down significantly,” said Dr. Peminda Cabandugama, an endocrinologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

In March, Novo Nordisk cut the price of all doses of Wegovy by 23% for people paying in cash, dropping it from $650 to $499 per month for uninsured patients or those without coverage. (The list price of $1,349 stayed the same.)