Evernorth, the pharmacy benefits unit for health insurer giant Cigna, has reached a deal with drugmakers Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to cap the out-of-pocket cost for the companies’ popular weight loss drugs.
Evernorth said that through direct negotiations with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly, patients’ monthly copay costs for Wegovy (semaglutide) and Zepbound (tirzepatide) will not exceed $200.
Wegovy has a list price of $1,350 per month, but the net price across the US is likely less due to various discounts and coverage plans.
Still, the cap is a further decrease to the already discounted $499 that consumers would pay if going directly to Novo Nordisk or Eli Lilly each month without insurance. Novo Nordisk’s NovoCare Pharmacy cut the price of its weight loss drug for eligible cash-paying patients in March 2025.
Evernorth stated its plan can save patients as much as $3,600 per year. Alongside this benefit, the pharmacy benefits manager said that the new deal includes a simplified pre-authorisation process for the drugs, meaning patients can pick up their medications for the same price across retail pharmacies or through Evernorth’s home delivery service.
Evernorth Care Management and Express Scripts president Adam Kautzner said: “We are reimagining pharmacy benefits to reduce costs and better serve patients.
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By GlobalData“This is what Express Scripts does better than anyone: save Americans money on their prescriptions while helping them achieve their health goals.”
The new programme expands Evernorth’s glucagon-like peptide-receptor agonist (GLP-1RA) offerings, having already rolled out EncircleRx, a financial model with more than nine million enrolled patients that has saved health plans $200m since 2024, according to the company. Evernorth has also announced EnReachRx, which provides a full support journey to patients taking GLP-1RAs.
This month, CVS Caremark announced that it had also signed a deal to make Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy its preferred GLP-1RA starting in July, which concurrently deprioritised coverage for Zepbound.
US GLP-1RA prices under the spotlight
The cost cap by Evernorth comes at a time of increased government scrutiny on prescription drug prices. US President Donald Trump singled out weight loss drugs when signing a recent executive order aimed at cutting drug prices across the country.
At the signing ceremony, Trump described a conversation with a businessman friend on the phone who described the significant differences in weight-loss treatment expense in Europe compared to the US.
“I’m in London, and I just paid for this damn fat drug I take. I just paid $88, and in New York, I paid $1,300. What the hell is going on? … It’s the same box made in the same plant by the same company,” Trump recounted.
US patients pay the highest prices for prescription drugs, often nearly three times more than those in other developed nations. A new pricing model by the US Department of Health and Human Services will tie drug prices to global rates.
A 2024 model by GlobalData forecasts that the type 2 diabetes and obesity drug markets will reach more than $125bn in 2033.
GlobalData is the parent company of Pharmaceutical Technology.
