Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Novo Nordisk said on Monday all eligible cash-paying customers in the United States can buy its weight-loss drug Wegovy at a discounted price of $499 per month at their local pharmacy.
U.S.-listed shares of Novo fell more than 2.5% to $74.92 in premarket trading. Novo has also lost its spot as Europe’s largest company to German software firm SAP having underperformed the market in recent months.
The Danish drugmaker and rival Eli Lilly have begun offering their popular weight-loss drugs at discounted prices, as they grapple with shifts to the competitive dynamic of the highly lucrative obesity drug market.
Investors have been worried about growing competition with Lilly as well as disappointing data from its next-generation weight-loss candidate CagriSema, which Novo hopes will be a powerful successor to Wegovy.
Last month, Lilly cut the price for vials of its weight-loss drug Zepbound by $50 or more and expanded the range of doses sold online to try to stave off competition.
Compounding pharmacies have been selling hundreds of thousands of doses of copies of Wegovy while it was in shortage. The Food and Drug Administration has since asked them to cease making copies but will hold off on taking action until a federal court delivers its ruling in a lawsuit.
Wegovy can cost more than $1,000 per month for those who do not have health insurance coverage. The high costs had been widely criticized by former President Joe Biden and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, among others.
Until now, the drug was only available at the discounted price through its NovoCare Pharmacy program.
The expanded program will offer all dosage strengths of the drug to uninsured patients or eligible patients with commercial insurance who do not have coverage for obesity medicines.
This replaces Novo’s previous program through which it offered month’s supply of Wegovy for $650.