The “Wegovy” brand slimming syringe is sold in the Achat pharmacy in Mitte. The “Wegovy” slimming syringe has been available in Germany for a year.
Jens Kalaene | Picture Alliance | Getty Images
CVS Health on Thursday said it will significantly expand access to the blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy for patients covered by its pharmacy benefit manager, Caremark.
Starting July 1, Caremark will prioritize Wegovy on its formularies — or lists of covered drugs — making it the preferred GLP-1 drug for obesity. The move is part of a new partnership between Caremark and Wegovy’s manufacturer, Novo Nordisk, according to CVS’ first-quarter earnings release.
Caremark will also drop the weight loss drug Zepbound from its standard formularies on that date, in a blow to its manufacturer, Eli Lilly, a CVS spokesperson told CNBC. They said those standard formularies are the most common among Caremark’s client base, representing tens of millions of patients.
Eligible patients covered by Caremark who are currently taking Zepbound will be able to switch to Wegovy, the spokesperson said.
Shares of Novo Nordisk rose roughly 1% on Thursday after the announcement, while Eli Lilly’s stock fell 8%.
It comes as Novo Nordisk works to boost access to Wegovy now that it is no longer in short supply in the U.S. Partnering with Caremark, one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers, could help the drugmaker reach even more patients.
Caremark discounts drugs with manufacturers on behalf of insurance plans and creates lists of medications, or formularies, that are covered by insurance and reimburses pharmacies for prescriptions.
Caremark will make the drug available to its members at “a more affordable price.” The PBM negotiated a lower net price for Wegovy over Zepbound on its standard formularies, offering savings to clients that opt into those plans, the CVS spokesperson said.
But Caremark’s clients, which are employers and unions, “individually determine how much of that savings on Wegovy gets shared with its members either via lower premiums or lower copays at the pharmacy counter,” the spokesperson said.
Separately, any patient who does not have insurance coverage for Wegovy or another GLP-1 can still buy Novo Nordisk’s drug out-of-pocket for $499 at any of CVS’ 9,000 pharmacies nationwide, the spokesperson added.
In its earnings release, CVS said it is the first retail pharmacy partnering with Novo Nordisk’s new direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, NovoCare, to dispense Wegovy to patients with prescriptions. NovoCare offers Wegovy at that lower price point to cash-paying patients, who may struggle to shoulder the drug’s roughly $1,000 list price before insurance and other rebates.
Caremark will also combine Wegovy with additional lifestyle support, such as personalized nutrition plans, as part of the CVS Weight Management program.
The announcement comes as the Danish drugmaker races to capture more patients now that many compounding pharmacies are legally restricted from making cheaper, unapproved versions of Wegovy, with rare exceptions.
“It’s unknown at this point how the migration from the compound pharmacies into other pharmacy settings are going to occur,” CVS Health group president Prem Shah said on an earnings call on Thursday. “But we do expect that there will be obviously some benefit by opening up 9,000 stores, or 9,000 opportunities for patients to be able to get the medication.”
Dave Moore, Novo Nordisk’s executive vice president of U.S. operations, said in a separate release on Thursday that “it is our responsibility to continue to work with others across the US healthcare system to find innovative opportunities to meet the needs of these patients and connect them with authentic, FDA-approved Wegovy … in a convenient and affordable way.”
