Ro to offer lower-price vials of weight loss drug Zepbound by teaming up with Eli Lilly

Direct-to-consumer healthcare startup Ro said Wednesday that its platform will now offer cheaper single-dose vials of the weight-loss drug Zepbound through a new partnership with Eli Lillywhich aims to streamline access to the popular treatment.

Ro said it will offer a “complete end-to-end” experience on one platform and app, allowing eligible patients to receive a diagnosis and prescription for Zepbound and have vials of the drug delivered to their homes. This is made possible through a unique integration with Eli Lilly's direct-to-consumer website, LillyDirect, which already offers home delivery of Zepbound vials through a third-party digital pharmacy, Gifthealth.

Gifthealth will provide the vials to patients who receive Zepbound prescriptions through an Ro-affiliated provider.

Zepbound vials are a cash-paid product offered only through LillyDirect, meaning patients pay for it out-of-pocket at a lower cost than the auto-injector form of the drug. According to Ro, the vials have the “most affordable” price of a brand-name drug GLP-1 before insurance. GLP-1s, a class of drugs that mimic gut hormones to suppress appetite and regulate blood sugar levels, have surged in demand over the past two years.

“Patients usually have to go to multiple places to get Lilly's medicine, such as the doctor's office and then a pharmacy,” Ro co-founder and CEO Zachariah Reitano told CNBC in an interview. “This integration truly creates a seamless patient experience where they don't have to go anywhere else. They have access to physicians, labs and a pharmacy that gives them access to Zepbound vials in one place.”

Ro runs a weight-loss program that Zepbound already prescribes in a single-dose auto-injector pen, which patients can inject directly under their skin with the click of a button. But this form of the drug is much more expensive than vials, costing about $1,000 per month before insurance.

The 2.5-milligram and 5-milligram single-dose vials of Zepbound cost $399 per month and $549 per month before insurance, respectively, making them more accessible to those who do not have insurance coverage for the drug. Eli Lilly started offering these bottles through LillyDirect in August.

“Whether you are covered by insurance, or you want the most affordable GLP-1 with cash, which is the Zepbound vials, you can get all of these by coming to Ro,” Reitano said, noting that the company will do that. help eligible patients determine which form of the drug is best for them based on their insurance.

He acknowledged that about $400 to $500 a month for Zepbound is “still out of reach for many, but now much more within reach than” $1,000 or more.

The popularity of expensive treatments such as Zepbound and Novo Nordisk's weight loss injection Wegovy has led to widespread shortages in the US. That problem has since disappeared after Eli Lilly and Nordisk rushed to ramp up production capacity for the drugs.

Still, cheaper compounded versions of GLP-1s have gained popularity amid the limited supply of brand-name medications. Eli Lilly is working to expand access to its Zepbound brand in what appears to be an effort to crack down on compounded versions of the drug.

Patrik Jonsson, Eli Lilly's president of cardiometabolic health, said in a press release Tuesday that the goal of the new integration is to “break down barriers and provide patients with safe and effective options they can trust.”

The FDA is currently reconsidering its decision to remove Zepbound from the drug shortage list, following a lawsuit from a trade association representing compounding pharmacies. Removing Zepbound from that shortage list will essentially prevent compounding pharmacies from making modified versions of the drug.

If that proves to be the case, Reitano said Ro will “follow all applicable laws and guidelines” under the FDA and also “fight to ensure that our patients have access to the most effective products and the most affordable products.”