The FDA approves Eli Lilly’s Zepbound, a weight loss drug much like Ozempic and Wegovy.
Courtesy: Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly on Tuesday mentioned its just lately permitted weight loss remedy Zepbound is now available at pharmacies throughout the U.S., serving as an alternative choice to rival weight problems medication such as Wegovy which are dealing with supply issues.
Zepbound is the most recent entrant to the budding weight loss drug market, which Wall Street expects to develop to about $100 billion by the tip of the last decade.
High demand for the therapies has resulted in widespread shortages of Novo Nordisk‘s Wegovy and diabetes drug Ozempic as properly as Eli Lilly’s diabetes remedy Mounjaro, pushing corporations to ramp up manufacturing. Those ongoing provide points give Zepbound, which accommodates the identical lively ingredient as Mounjaro, a chance to seize market share.
Eli Lilly additionally mentioned in a launch that its industrial financial savings card program, which goals to broaden entry to Zepbound, is now available to sufferers with a prescription.
Under this system, sufferers whose medical health insurance covers Zepbound could pay as low as $25 for a one- or three-month prescription of the weekly injection. Those whose insurance coverage doesn’t cowl Zepbound could pay as low as $550 for a one-month prescription — about half the drug’s checklist value.
Also on Tuesday, Eli Lilly mentioned Zepbound was added to the popular formulary, or checklist of coated medication, of a significant drug advantages firm, Cigna.
Zepbound can be added to the industrial formularies of Cigna’s health-care enterprise on Dec. 15, based on Eli Lilly.
“The availability of Zepbound in U.S. pharmacies is step one, however now we have to work hand-in-hand with employers, authorities and healthcare business companions to take away boundaries and make Zepbound available to those that want it,” mentioned Rhonda Pacheco, Eli Lilly’s group vp for diabetes and weight problems, in a press release.
Zepbound is an injection administered as soon as weekly. The dosage have to be elevated over a interval of 4 to twenty weeks to attain the goal dose sizes of 5, 10 or 15 milligrams per week.
The drug works by activating two naturally produced hormones within the physique: glucagon-like peptide 1, recognized as GLP-1, and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide, or GIP.
The mixture is alleged to sluggish the emptying of the abdomen, making folks really feel full for longer and suppressing urge for food by slowing starvation indicators within the mind.
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