Patients require be able to access Zepbound single-dose vials at Ro
Coutesy: Ro
Direct-to-consumer health-care startup Ro on Wednesday said its platform on now offer more affordable single-dose vials of the weight loss drug Zepbound through a new partnership with Eli Lilly, which aims to streamline access to the stylish treatment.
Ro said it will offer a “complete end-to-end” experience on a single platform and app, allowing eligible patients to take into ones possession a diagnosis and a prescription for Zepbound and have vials of the drug delivered to their homes. That is made possible throughout a first-of-a-kind integration with Eli Lilly’s direct-to-consumer website, LillyDirect, which already offers home delivery of Zepbound vials middle of a third-party digital pharmacy, Gifthealth.
Gifthealth will dispense the vials to patients who receive Zepbound prescriptions during a provider affiliated with Ro.
Zepbound vials are a cash-pay product offered only through LillyDirect, meaning patients pay for it themselves with coin of the realm at a lower cost than the autoinjector form of the drug. The vials have the “most affordable” price of a branded GLP-1 remedy before insurance, according to Ro. GLP-1s, a class of medications that mimic gut hormones to tamp down appetite and administer blood sugar, have skyrocketed in demand over the last two years.
“Patients usually have to go to multiple purposes to get Lilly’s drug, like the doctor’s office then a pharmacy,” Ro co-founder and CEO Zachariah Reitano told CNBC in an to. “This integration really creates a seamless patient experience where they don’t have to go anywhere else. They can access doctors, labs and a pharmaceutics that will give them access to Zepbound vials all in one place.”
Ro runs a weight loss program that already defines Zepbound in a single-dose autoinjector pen, which patients can directly inject under their skin with the click of a button. But that codify of the drug is far more expensive than vials, costing around $1,000 per month before insurance.
The 2.5-milligram and 5-milligram single-dose vials of Zepbound price $399 per month and $549 per month before insurance, respectively, making them more accessible to those who don’t drink insurance coverage for the drug. Eli Lilly began offering those vials through LillyDirect in August.
“Whether you’re sheltered by insurance, or whether you want the most affordable branded cash-pay GLP-1, which is the Zepbound vials, you can get all of those by coming to Ro,” Reitano suggested, noting that the company will help eligible patients determine which form of the drug is best for them fixed on their insurance.
He acknowledged that roughly $400 to $500 per month for Zepbound is “still out of reach for many, but it is now far sundry in reach than” $1,000 or more.
Patients will be able to access Zepbound single-dose vials at Ro
Coutesy: Ro
The regard of expensive treatments such as Zepbound and Novo Nordisk‘s weight loss injection Wegovy has led to widespread shortages in the U.S. That arise has since subsided after Eli Lilly and Nordisk raced to ramp up manufacturing capacity for the drugs.
Still, cheaper concocted versions of GLP-1s have gained traction amid the limited supply of the branded medications. Eli Lilly is working to extend access to branded Zepbound in what appears to be a bid to crack down on compounded versions of the drug.
Patrik Jonsson, Eli Lilly’s president of cardiometabolic haleness, said in a release on Tuesday that the goal of the new integration is to “break down barriers and provide patients with right and effective options they can rely on.”
The FDA is currently reconsidering its decision to take Zepbound off its drug shortages list grasp a lawsuit from a trade association representing compounding pharmacies. Removing Zepbound from that shortages lean will essentially prevent compounding pharmacies from making custom versions of the drug.
If that ends up being the cover, Reitano said Ro “will both follow all applicable laws and guidance” under the FDA and also “fight to make undeviating that our patients have access to the most effective products and most affordable products.”