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.
Agentic AI company Infinitus is rolling out new tools designed to boost pharma companies’ direct-to-consumer (D2C) platforms. As pharmaceutical companies move to sell drugs directly to patients, the immediate next step is raising awareness and making their online platforms easy to use. It’s not just about selling a medicine—it’s about building relationships, ensuring patients don’t discontinue treatment, and providing a better healthcare experience than what consumers are typically used to.
GoodRx is launching a weight loss telehealth membership plan and discounting the cash-pay price for low doses of Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy to $199 per month. GoodRx is newer to telehealth, but already making waves and forging closer relationships with drugmakers.
18% of US adults have tried a GLP-1 drug to lose weight or to treat diabetes or heart disease, and 12% are currently using them, per new KFF survey data. That’s a sharp increase from 12% who had taken a GLP-1 and 6% of consumers who were using one in 2024. Marketers will need to capitalize on growing interest and awareness by positioning GLP-1 use around whole health, not just weight loss.
More than half of women received a mental health diagnosis after perimenopause symptoms began, according to a Biote survey in August. For healthcare providers, adding basic perimenopause assessments to routine visits can help distinguish hormonal shifts from mental health conditions.
Nearly one-third (31.4%) of US adults will purchase a prescription drug at an online pharmacy this year, per EMARKETER’s first-ever forecast of online pharmacy users. Online pharmacies won’t dominate prescription drug purchases anytime soon, but they’re becoming a core part of how consumers shop and pay for medications. Pharmacies that combine the best of in-person and digital offerings will be well-positioned to win customers. That means staffing stores appropriately during busy hours, ensuring pharmacists can answer questions both online and in person, and providing intuitive websites and apps for prescription management and payment. Online-only pharmacies will want to clearly showcase their accreditations in consumer marketing.
The FDA appointed long-time cancer therapy regulator Dr. Richard Pazdur as the new director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). Pazdur’s appointment is likely to reassure drugmakers that have been concerned about regulatory changes and slower drug reviews and approvals, and signals a return to more predictable science-driven drug evaluation and oversight.
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.
Telehealth provider Hims & Hers is adding direct-to-consumer lab testing services in a new partnership with Quest Diagnostics. While the ability to self-order lab tests through platforms like Hims offers convenience and new insight into potential health risks, it also puts more responsibility on consumers.
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.
Pfizer beat Novo Nordisk in the battle to acquire obesity drugmaker Metsera in a deal worth over $10 billion. Regulators will keep a close watch on mergers to ensure competition in the obesity drug category that could reach $150 billion within 10 years. Leading weight loss drug manufacturers Novo and Eli Lilly will have to lean further into organic development and seek additional clinical indications beyond obesity, while Big Pharmas without weight loss treatments and smaller players could be better off pursuing partnerships and M&As.
OpenAI may build its own consumer health tools, such as a personal health assistant or a product that aggregates users’ health data, per a Business Insider report. A range of healthcare and tech companies—from Verily to wearable makers like Oura and Fitbit—are developing AI-powered health coach and assistant tools. A comparable OpenAI product could immediately threaten existing solutions due to its massive scale, provided it gains access to patient data. However, makers of health-tracking devices and some digital health companies could also be strong partners for OpenAI in creating a product that combines advanced AI with user health data.
The US Senate is moving to end the government shutdown, but the compromise deal leaves out guarantees to extend the Affordable Care Act (ACA) healthcare tax credits. Without ACA subsidies, younger and healthier consumers will likely drop out of the insurance pool, leaving older and higher-risk enrollees behind. That would drive up premiums and further reduce plan enrollment, putting pressure on insurers and shrinking consumer choice.
The majority (86%) of healthcare professionals say AI affects their treatment decisions, although the degree ranges from significant to slight, per a recent DHC Group survey. Healthcare professionals are open to more AI use in medical practice, but they still prefer it as a support tool. Pharma companies should focus on advisory, not decision-making solutions that can help save physicians’ time and add clinical context.
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.
Consumers without experience using digital health tools—like wearables, health apps, or devices to manage a condition—say they’d try one if recommended by a doctor or insurer, according to a recent report from Merge. Direct-to-consumer marketing isn’t the only effective way to drive digital health tool adoption. When it comes to their health, many consumers trust medical professionals over brands—giving health tech players a chance to further prove to insurers, employers, and doctors that their tools deliver real value.
Healthcare and pharma social media ad spending will surpass linear TV this year, growing 18.1% year over year to reach almost $6 billion. Meanwhile, the industry’s linear TV spend will decline 11% to $5.56 billion. These shifts in spending align with the fact that social media is an increasingly important source of health information, especially for younger people and healthcare professionals.
Mark Cuban’s online pharmacy, Cost Plus Drug Company, signed a deal to sell a biosimilar version of Johnson & Johnson’s drug Stelara at a price far below the brand-name list price and lower than competing biosimilars. Starjemza isn’t Cost Plus’ first move into biosimilars, but the drug’s steep discount compared to other Stelara competitors could pose a real challenge to typical pharmacy benefit manager pricing negotiations.
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.
Direct-to-consumer TV advertising doubled the collective sales of many of the largest pharma TV advertisers across the last three years, per a recent analysis by VAB. Big Pharma’s large TV ad budgets are still paying off despite the industry-wide shift towards digital. The VAB findings highlight TV’s ability to generate brand awareness that also fuels downstream digital engagement.