Eli Lilly just halved the price of its weight-loss drug — declaring war on the booming market of knockoffs

• Eli Lilly is cutting the price of its popular weight-loss drug to compete with counterfeit versions.
• Zepbound will be sold for $399 to $549 a month, compared to a previous list price of $1,059.
• It's a move to retake the market after high demand and shortages prompted a spike in off-brand options.

One of the biggest weight-loss drugs on the market will now be available at half the cost, as its manufacturer hopes to reclaim the market from booming counterfeit and off-brand sales.

The pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly announced Tuesday that Zepbound, its version of the drug tirzepatide designed specifically for weight loss, would be sold in single-dose bottles.

Tirzepatide is part of a class of medications called GLP-1s , which act on a hormone receptor that controls appetite. Research suggests it can lead to even more weight loss than similar GLP-1 drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic (which contain semaglutide) because tirzepatide works on two hunger-related hormones instead of just one. It was FDA-approved for weight loss in November 2023.

Previously, Zepbound was only sold in prefilled injector pens for a list price of $1,059 a month.

The new single-dose vials will be available to customers who pay out of pocket and cost $399 to $549 for a month's supply, depending on the dose, though they do require patients to use a needle and syringe.

Vials are cheaper and easier to get than pens, so the change could help address shortages, according to Dr. Christopher McGowan , a board-certified physician in internal medicine, gastroenterology, and obesity medicine.

"One of the biggest obstacles to manufacturing and supply has been the single-use pens and packaging," he told Business Insider.

The move is intended to increase access to the wildly popular medication. "These new vials not only help us meet the high demand for our obesity medicine, but also broaden access for patients seeking a safe and effective treatment option," Patrik Jonsson, Lilly's executive vice president, said in a press release.

It's unclear whether other weight loss drug manufacturers will follow suit in lowering prices. Novo Nordisk, which produces Wegovy and Ozempic, said in a statement Tuesday that it is advocating for insurance coverage to improve access to medications.

McGowan and other experts noted that Lilly's lower pricing strategy comes with some limitations.

Drug access is still an issue, especially at higher doses

A major caveat of Lilly's Tuesday announcement is that it only affects the two lowest doses of Zepbound.

Per the data from clinical trials, about one in three patients won't have the kind of weight loss results they're seeking at 5 mg, the highest dose available in vials, McGowan said. While the low doses may work for some, it's likely that a majority of patients will eventually need to turn to the higher-cost, higher-dose injector pens.

"Patients will get a taste of weight loss at low doses but will then be seeking higher doses for more significant weight loss," McGowan said. "It's a way to pull patients back over to Lilly."

Plus, it's doesn't really matter if patients don't buy these new vials, said Tim Mackey, a professor at the University of California, San Diego who studies the online (often illicit) drug market. Simply appearing accessible is a win for Lilly, he said.

"It's a bit of a marketing ploy to say that they're providing cheaper options to get consumers to come back to the branded product," Mackey told Business Insider. "They have a very good narrative they can build off this but in reality what they're trying to do is maximize their market share."

There's also still a question of cost. Even the halved price of $549 monthly is out of reach for many people who could benefit from the drug.

Ted Kyle, a health professional with decades of experience in policy, marketing, and obesity care, believes we are still a long way off from equitable pricing.

"I think the future holds lower prices, broader access, and better quality of care, but the road is going to be bumpy to get there," Kyle told BI.

Can Big Pharma take on the bootleg weight-loss drug market?

By offering a cheaper alternative, Lilly is pushing back against a massive — and growing — market of alternative weight-loss drugs.

On one hand, you have counterfeit weight-loss drugs : Versions of tirzepatide and semaglutide sold online without a prescription through a legal loophole. Many of these are illegal, and can pose a serious risk of contamination or overdose , Mackey previously told Business Insider.

Another class of copycat drugs are known as compounded medications . These require a prescription and offer some quality control, though they still aren't FDA-approved or regulated, so doctors say they can also be risky. Technically, pharmacies can only supply a compounded drug if the original version is listed as in shortage. As of early this month, that's no longer the case for tirzepatide, according to the FDA .

Lilly is aiming to recapture consumers looking for cheaper options — hitting counterfeiters and compounders with a one-two punch alongside its efforts to crack down on off-brand providers via lawsuits announced earlier this year.

Experts aren't so sure this will be enough to take on the burgeoning industry of copycats.

"I think it's going to be tough to put that compounding genie back in the bottle," Kyle said. "It comes down to a choice of getting it or not getting it."

For McGowan, guiding patients away from copycat drugs and back to the brand name drug, at a lower cost, could have huge safety benefits.

"We know they're being inundated with knockoff versions. From that standpoint, I see this as potentially a big victory," he said. "It's movement in the right direction."