Novo Nordisk has strengthened its collaborations with telehealth firms to enhance accessibility to its prominent weight reduction medication, Wegovy.
The pharmaceutical firm is now collaborating with WeightWatchers to provide customers Wegovy, using CenterWell Pharmacy for the fulfillment and delivery of the prescriptions. CenterWell is a subsidiary of Humana.
WeightWatchers seeks to provide customers a more efficient experience, along with simple access to FDA-approved medications and lifestyle assistance shown to enhance results, according to a business news release.
The latest association with WeightWatchers follows the termination of Novo’s agreement with health firm Hims & Hers due to apprehensions over the promotion and sale of counterfeit compounded GLP-1 medications by the latter.
Dave Moore, EVP of U.S. Operations at Novo Nordisk, said that the business is optimistic about its current partnerships with telemedicine firms Ro and LifeMD.
Moore stated that WeightWatchers, with more than sixty years of experience developing a science-based strategy for weight control, sees strong alignment in its mutual dedication to enhancing long-term health outcomes. He added that the company will keep working to establish and strengthen partnerships with organizations that reflect its values while also advancing efforts to improve patient access to its FDA-approved treatments.
Novo Nordisk is launching a new cash-offer pricing of $299, valid until July 31, 2025, for self-paying customers who are either recently added to the Wegovy savings program or have not yet obtained a prescription via NovoCare, the firm’s online store.
This extends the company’s prior $199 cash-offer patient pricing for Wegovy, which expires on June 30. Individuals who used the $199 Wegovy savings deal from May 22 to June 30 qualify for the $299 pricing on a single filling between July 1 and July 31. In the ensuing months, self-paying customers would incur a fee of $499 monthly, according to the firm.
In April, the pharmaceutical firm revealed a collaboration with Hims & Hers, suggesting a resolution after their dispute around the company’s’s sale of compounded formulations of semaglutide, the active component in Novo’s Wegovy and Ozempic medications.
Hims & Hers and other telehealth firms experienced a setback after the FDA’s announcement that semaglutide was not in limited supply any longer, rendering it unsuitable for compounding. Compounded semaglutide producers and some telehealth firms established a market offering more affordable alternatives to branded weight reduction medications.
Within a year and a half , weight reduction has emerged as one of Hims & Hers’ primary specializations, as stated by CEO Andrew Dudum in May. Earlier this year, the firm began the retail distribution of a generic variant of Novo Nordisk’s diabetic medication liraglutide. It persisted in offering tailored dosages of semaglutide for the specific group of customers for whom it is clinically essential, as stated by Dudum.
Last week, Novo terminated its relationship with Hims & Hers after just one month, claiming that the firm was violating the law by persistently selling compounded semaglutide alongside Novo’s branded pharmaceuticals.
