Novo Nordisk will cut US Wegovy and Ozempic listing prices by up to 50%

Novo Nordisk The US drugmaker said on Tuesday that it plans to reduce the monthly list prices of common obesity and diabetes drugs in the United States by up to 50% starting in 2027, in an effort to make the treatments more affordable for patients with insurance coverage.

The obesity injection Wegovy, its new pill counterpart, the diabetes shot Ozempic and the oral diabetes drug Rybelsus, will have a new lower list price of $675 per month starting January 1, 2027. The list price for the Wegovy drugs is currently about $1,350 per month, while the list prices for the diabetes drugs are about $1,027 per month.

For the first time, Novo said its price cuts target insured patients whose out-of-pocket costs are tied to list prices, such as people with high-deductible health plans or coinsurance benefit designs.

“Each of these patients should start [in 2027]“We see a benefit from lower out-of-pocket costs,” Jami Millar, the company’s head of U.S. operations, told CNBC in an interview.

He added that Novo expects improvements in access to and uptake among patients in the commercial insurance market, although the company does not provide any specific forecasts.

The move could help Novo compete better Eli Lillywhich now holds a majority share of the popular GLP-1 market. Lilly’s more effective drugs and early entry into direct-to-consumer distribution have allowed it to take the lead in this area, but the company has not yet significantly reduced the US list prices of its drugs.

It’s unclear exactly how much commercially insured patients pay out of pocket for Novo drugs. These patients may pay up to $25 a month for Novo drugs “in only the best of circumstances,” Millar said.

He added that patients in high-deductible plans would have to pay out of pocket “more or less the full list of drug prices until they get to that threshold” and the insurance benefits kick in. Some of these patients are putting off treatment entirely because they don’t want to incur the expense, Millar said. He noted that the number of patients using high-deductible plans has increased over the years due to the trade-off of lower premiums.

Meanwhile, other people have 25% to 33% of their coinsurance tied to the list price of those drugs, Millar said.

The Danish drugmaker previously reduced direct-to-consumer prices for Wegovy and Ozempic, which primarily benefits cash-paying patients who often do not have insurance coverage for the drugs.

Novo offers its medications to cash-paying patients for $149 to $499 per month, depending on the product and dosage selected. Novo and Lilly have been escalating the GLP-1 pricing war over the past year, especially after the historic “most favored nation” deals they struck with President Donald Trump in November.

The move also coincides with Medicare’s new lower prices taking effect for Novo’s obesity and diabetes drugs in 2027 after negotiations with the federal government under the Inflation Reduction Act. The new negotiated prices for Wegovy, Ozempic, and Rybelsus will be $274 per month.