Novo Nordisk Extends Lowered Wegovy Price to Retail Pharmacies

Novo Nordisk has updated the Wegovy savings program to allow patients to access the lowered cost of Wegovy (semaglutide) at retail pharmacies. Earlier this month, the company launched NovoCarePharmacy, a direct-to-patient option that offered Wegovy at a cash price of $499 per month with home delivery.

Previously, Novo Nordisk offered a $650 per month direct-ship option for cash-paying patients.

Wegovy was approved to treat obesity in June 2021, and it is available as an injection in 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 1.7 mg, and 2.4 mg of the once-weekly, single-dose pen. Its list price is $1,349, and the company said that 90% of patients have a co-pay of $0 to $25 per month.

In 2024, sales of Wegovy and Novo Nordisk’s other semaglutide products (Ozempic and Rybelsus, which both treat type 2 diabetes) increased 27% to $39.4 billion. Sales of Wegovy alone grew 57% to $9.4 billion.

The three semaglutide drugs are at the top of CMS's next 15 Medicare Part D drugs to be subject to price negotiations as part of the Inflation Reduction Act. Negotiations with participating drug companies begin this year, and the new prices will become effective in 2027. The three semaglutide products had total Part D gross costs of $14.4 billion from November 2023 to October 2024, according to CMS.

In January 2025, the FDA approved Ozempic to reduce the risk of kidney disease worsening, kidney failure, and death due to cardiovascular disease in adults with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease.

In February 2025, Lilly lowered the prices of several doses of Zepbound (tirzepatide) for patients purchasing the obesity medication through the self-pay program. Through the Zepbound Self-Pay Journey Program, patients with obesity now have additional options to purchase the vial presentations of Zepbound, including 2.5 mg, 5 mg, 7.5 mg and 10 mg doses.

Unlike the Novo Nordisk program, Lilly only provides reductions on prices on some doses of Zepbound vials but not the autoinjector pens.

In a news release, Novo Nordisk officials said the lower price helps patients “avoid the significant risks that can be posed by the compounding marketplace.” The increased demand for GLP-1 products such as Wegovy and Zepbound has led to drug shortages. But in February 2025, the FDA had indicated that the shortages for Wegovy and Ozempic were over.

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FDA officials, however, are still concerned about the safety of compounded GLP-1 products, issuing an update last week about multiple reports of adverse events and dosing errors from compounded obesity drugs. As of Feb. 28, 2025, the FDA has received more than 455 reports of adverse events with compounded semaglutide and more than 320 reports of adverse events with compounded tirzepatide.

Agency officials said some of the compounded GLP-1 therapies are using the salt forms, including semaglutide sodium and semaglutide acetate, which are different active ingredients than are used in the approved drugs. Regulators said they do not have information on whether these salts have the same chemical and pharmacologic properties as the active ingredient in the approved drug.

Additionally, the agency warned about counterfeit Ozempic, which may have the wrong ingredients, contain too little, too much or no active ingredient.

Shabbir Safdar

The FDA first found counterfeit Ozempic in the U.S. drug supply chain in December 2023. But the Partnership for Safe Medicines in February 2025 said counterfeit GLP-1 drugs continue to flood the U.S. market. In a new report, the organization outlined the efforts to stop the flow of these products.

“Use of compounded versions of GLP-1 medications has surged, with telehealth companies and compounding pharmacies aggressively marketing them to consumers,” Shabbir Safdar, executive director of the Partnership for Safe Medicines, said in a news release.