Novo Nordisk’s long-anticipated weight-loss pill finally reached U.S. pharmacies this week, opening a new front in the GLP-1 drug boom fueled by the popular drug.
“We know there are people who are interested in addressing their weight but have been waiting on the sidelines for a medicine that was right for them,” Ed Cinca, senior vice president of marketing and patient solutions at Novo Nordisk, said in a statement. “For many of them, that wait is over as we can now offer the powerful efficacy of Wegovy in a once-daily pill that demonstrated about 17% weight loss, if all patients stayed on treatment.”
The Wegovy pill, Novo Nordisk said, is available through U.S. pharmacies including CVS and Costco, as well as health providers like LifeMD and Weight Watchers. A 4mg dose will also be available for $149 per month through April 15, then will increase to $199. The highest doses of the Wegovy pill will cost $299 monthly, the company said.
Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 or GLP-1 medicines were originally developed to treat type-2 diabetes, but have surged in popularity over the past several years after clinical trials showed they could produce sustained weight loss by suppressing appetite and slowing gastric emptying.
While the TrumpRx website is active, it currently functions mainly as a landing page outlining the administration’s executive order and pricing framework, rather than a full consumer purchasing platform.
Under the agreements, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly agreed to cut prices for several major GLP-1 drugs, including Wegovy, Ozempic, Zepbound, and Mounjaro, when sold through the program, lowering monthly costs for eligible patients from more than $1,000 to the mid-$300 range. The deals also set pricing expectations for future GLP-1 drugs, including oral formulations, as obesity treatments take on a larger role in federal health spending.
Despite the agreements with the White House, a Novo Nordisk spokesperson told Decrypt there was no influence from the Trump administration on the approval of the Wegovy pill, noting that the OASIS-4 clinical trials that supported the FDA decision concluded two years ago.
