Patients will be able to access single dose vials of Zepbound at Ro
Courtesy: Ro
Direct-to-consumer healthcare startup Rowe said Wednesday that its platform will now offer more affordable single-dose vials through a new partnership with weight-loss drug Zepbound. Eli LillyIt aims to streamline access to popular treatments.
Ro said it will provide a “complete end-to-end” experience on a single platform and app, allowing eligible patients to receive a diagnosis and a prescription for Zepbound and have vials of the drug delivered to their homes. This is made possible through a first-of-its-kind integration with LillyDirect, LillyDirect’s direct-to-consumer website, which already offers home delivery of Zepbound vials through third-party digital pharmacy, Gifthealth.
Gifthealth will distribute the vials to patients who receive a Zepbound prescription through a provider affiliated with Ro.
Zipbound vials are a cash-only product offered through LilyDirect, meaning patients pay for them themselves with cash at a lower cost than the autoinjector form of the drug. According to Ro, the vials have the “most affordable” price of a branded GLP-1 drug before insurance. GLP-1s, a class of drugs that mimic gut hormones to reduce appetite and regulate blood sugar, have grown in demand over the past two years.
“Patients typically have to go to multiple places to get Lilly’s medicine, like a doctor’s office then a pharmacy,” Rowe co-founder and CEO Zacharia Reitano told CNBC in an interview. “This integration creates a truly seamless patient experience where they don’t have to go anywhere else. They can access doctors, labs and a pharmacy that will give them access to Zepbound vials in one place.”
Ro runs a weight loss program that already prescribes Zepbound in a single-dose autoinjector pen, which patients can inject directly under their skin with the click of a button. But that form of the drug is much more expensive than the vial, costing about $1,000 a month before insurance.
Zepbound’s 2.5-mg and 5-mg single-dose vials cost $399 per month and $549 per month before insurance, making them more accessible to those without insurance coverage for the drug. Eli Lilly began offering those vials through LilyDirect in August.
“Whether you’re covered by insurance, or you want the most affordable branded cash-pay GLP-1, which is the zipbound vial, you can come to Ro and get them all,” Reitano said, noting that the company will offer eligible patients based on their insurance. Help them decide which form of medication is best for them.
He acknowledged that roughly $400 to $500 a month for Zipbound “is still out of reach for a lot of people, but it’s much more within reach now than $1,000 or more.”
Patients will be able to access single-dose vials of Zepbound at Ro
Courtesy: Ro
The popularity of expensive treatments such as Zepbound and Novo NordiskWegovi’s weight loss injection has caused a massive shortage in the United States. The problem eased after Eli Lilly and Nordisk raced to ramp up drug production capacity.
Still, cheaper compounded versions of GLP-1 have gained traction amid limited supply of branded drugs. Eli Lilly is working to expand access to branded Zepbound in what appears to be a bid to crack compounded versions of the drug.
Patrick Johnson, Eli Lilly’s president of cardiometabolic health, said in a release Tuesday that the goal of the new merger is to “break down barriers and provide patients with safe and effective options they can rely on.”
The FDA is currently reconsidering its decision to remove Zepbound from its drug shortage list following a lawsuit by a trade association representing compounding pharmacies. Removing Zepbound from that shortage list would essentially prevent compounding pharmacies from making custom versions of the drug.
If that ends up happening, Reitano said, Ro will “both follow all applicable laws and guidelines under the FDA” and “fight to ensure our patients have access to the most effective products and the most affordable products.”
