Eli Lilly wants to get its obesity drugs into the hands of more Americans and it’s betting on employers to help do so.
The Indianapolis-based drugmaker launched a new program on Thursday that’s designed to offer employers more options for covering obesity drugs, thereby lowering the cost barriers to access for employees. Lilly and rival Novo Nordisk have taken various steps in recent months to slash the prices of their now-popular GLP-1 medications, and Lilly’s latest move is intended to close what it refers to as an “access gap” in U.S. obesity care.
In early 2024, Lilly launched LillyDirect, an online pharmacy where patients can buy a variety of medications, including its popular Zepbound injectable for obesity, without using insurance. By creating a similar platform, this time focused on employers, the drugmaker wants to give companies “greater cost predictability and transparency” to expand coverage of these drugs. Employers frequently express concern about the costs of these medications.
“By enabling coverage outside traditional benefit designs, we lower barriers to treatment and give employers greater control over how they support employee access to obesity care,” Kevin Hern, senior vice president of Lilly Employer, said in a statement. “This innovation can help employees access authentic obesity management medicines with more affordable out-of-pocket costs.”
FOCUS ON LOWERING DRUG PRICES
Through this new employer platform, Lilly’s Zepbound drug could be made available to employers for a discounted price of as little as $449 per month, which compares to its list price of more than $1,086. Zepbound was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2023 for chronic weight management.
Even as drugmakers are racing to lower the costs of GLP-1 and other obesity medications, Americans are generally paying more at the pharmacy this year. In January and February, the prices of 961 brand-name drugs went up by a median of 4%, according to an analysis by 46brooklyn, a drug price research firm. That said, price increases are typical at the start of a year.
WHY LILLY IS TARGETING EMPLOYERS
Lilly’s new program will allow employers to choose from more than 15 administrators to design benefits programs that are tailored to the needs of their workforce—and expand access to obesity coverage.
A 2025 survey by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans found that while coverage of GLP-1 medications is relatively common for the treatment of diabetes, with 55% of employers providing coverage, only 17% of those employers said they were considering offering coverage for weight loss, as well.
“I think we’ll learn in the coming months ahead, if this is a solution that maybe enables some employers who have been sitting on the sidelines to opt into obesity coverage for their employees,” Hern told CNBC. Some employers could add coverage for these drugs this year or wait until 2027, he added.
As it did in November when it teased the new employer platform was coming, Lilly appealed to the business sense of employers—citing a 2018 figure that estimates annual obesity-related costs resulted in $1.24 trillion in lost productivity.
LILLY’S MOVES
Thursday’s announcement is but the latest by Lilly in its race to overtake Novo Nordisk in the GLP-1 race. Last month, it unveiled its latest innovation—the KwikPen—which contains a month’s worth of Zepbound.
But like much of the U.S. stock market, shares of Lilly have been caught up in a selloff in the wake of the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. While the S&P 500 Index was down about 1.4% in mid-day trading on Thursday, Lilly’s stock slumped nearly 5%.