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By Patrick Wingrove
(Reuters) -Eli Lilly has cut the price for vials of its weight-loss drug Zepbound sold online and expanded the range of doses in an attempt to stave off stiff competition from compounding pharmacies and rival Novo Nordisk.
The launch of these vials expands options for patients who choose to pay cash through Lilly's direct-to-consumer website, and the cheaper price point could sway more customers away from compounded copies of the drug, according to analysts.
Shares of the Indiana-based drugmaker rose 2.6% to $905.32 after Lilly's announcement on Tuesday, while stocks of telehealth companies that offer compounded versions of weight-loss drugs fell in early trading.
Lilly said patients could purchase higher-dose 7.5 milligram and 10mg vials of Zepbound for $499 a month on the LillyDirect website. That is nearly 23% less than the $650 Lilly charges for auto-injectors of the drug to patients who are insured but not covered for the medicine.
The U.S. drugmaker last August launched vials of the two lowest doses of Zepbound, which is typically sold in auto-injector pens, to help increase availability. On Tuesday, it said it had also cut the prices for a month's supply of those doses by around $50 each. They now cost $349 and $499 a month through LillyDirect.
Patrik Jonsson, Eli Lilly's president of cardiometabolic health, said in an interview that more than 10% of patients starting on Zepbound have been initiated on vials since their launch.
Lilly is looking for ways to stimulate more demand for Zepbound this year to help ease investor agitation over signs of weakness in sales, and to better compete with Danish rival Novo Nordisk's popular Wegovy.
Novo offers Wegovy on its website for $650 for a month's supply to patients not covered by insurance for the drug, but does not sell its medicine in vials.
Lilly's new offer of $499 per month is still higher than the $231 to $330 compounding pharmacies charge on average for their versions of Zepbound and Wegovy in the U.S., although health regulators have ordered compounders to cease selling their copies in the coming months.
Shortages of the weight-loss drugs pushed patients to cheaper compounded versions, which can be sold and distributed in bulk as long as the original drug is on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's shortage list.
In the past three months, the FDA took both Zepbound and Wegovy off its shortage list, spurring lawsuits from compounding pharmacies.
Lilly is "striking while the iron is hot" to keep patients coming in and to attract customers who haven't yet been taking the products, said Bernstein analyst Courtney Breen.