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The cutthroat race to dominate the multibillion-dollar GLP-1 market just got even more ruthless.
Today, shares of Novo Nordisk jumped 3.71% after the pharma giant snagged a much-needed win: Its star weight-loss drug Wegovy became the first GLP-1 medication to be greenlit by the FDA to treat MASH, a severe liver disease.
On top of that, the company announced today it plans to halve its hefty price tag for patients who pay for Ozempic in cash. Users can now get the drug for roughly $499 through NovoCare, a direct online pharmacy, as well as telemedicine platform GoodRx.
The move follows a playbook pharma companies have been increasingly deploying as a backdoor tactic to lower prices. Offering these drugs on a direct-to-consumer platform avoids costly and complex middlemen, which includes pharmacy-benefit managers.
Zoom out: To catch you up on the ongoing GLP-1 rollercoaster, Novo Nordisk boomed out of the gate when it debuted the first super-effective GLP-1 drug, Ozempic. Its market cap became so gargantuan that it surpassed the entire GDP of Denmark.
But the drugmaker has blown its lead due to production miscalculations and stiff competition from fellow pharma giant Eli Lilly, as well as a slew of telemedicine startups producing knockoff versions of the drug. Novo’s shares are down 60% over the past 12 months.
Now, it looks like Novo could be staging a comeback—one it desperately needs. At the same time that it’s cutting prices, arch-rival Eli Lilly hiked the price tag of its own GLP-1 meds by roughly 170% in the UK. President Trump has been pressuring US pharma companies to lower US prices, and raise them in Europe. Shares of Eli Lilly sank 0.45%.
A GoodRx deal?
While the pharma behemoths continue to duke it out, the real winner today nearly slipped under the radar: telemedicine platform GoodRx, which soared 37.27% on the news that Novo Nordisk would be offering its discounted Ozempic on the platform.
One party having a BadRx day right now? Hims & Hers, the beleaguered online pharma platform that previously struck a short-lived distribution deal with Novo before the partnership turned sour and imploded in June. Today, it's seeing just what it missed out on.—LB