Half-off Ozempic deal sends Novo Nordisk stock surging

Novo Nordisk’s stock popped Monday after it announced a cash discount for uninsured Ozempic users and gained FDA approval for Wegovy to be used for liver treatment.

The pharma giant's stock rose more than 5.2% Monday as of about 12:25 p.m. Eastern.

The deal makes Ozempic available for $499 per month to self-paying customers who are uninsured or just decide to pay out-of-pocket, according to a press release. The discount is accessible through the company’s website and Ozempic.com.

“While Ozempic is well covered in the U.S., let's not forget that there are some patients who pay out-of-pocket for this vital medicine. We believe that if even a single patient feels the need to turn to potentially unsafe and unapproved knockoff alternatives, that's one too many," said U.S. operations lead Dave Moore. Only about 25% of employers say they cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss, while roughly 75% say they cover the drugs for diabetes.

Before discounts or insurance, Novo Nordisk's U.S. list prices for the diabetes drug Ozempic and the weight-loss drug Wegovy are $997 and $1,349, respectively. Rival drugmaker Eli Lilly, meanwhile, charges $1,079 for Mounjaro and $1,086 for Zepbound. Eli Lilly was first to offer a discounted direct-to-consumer option.

The Danish pharma company’s new cash discount comes weeks after it posted second-quarter earnings below Wall Street's expectations as it battles fierce competition from Eli Lilly and compounders making copycat GLP-1 drugs at more accessible prices.

In a media call, outgoing CEO Lars Fruergaard Jorgensen claimed the compounder business is now "equal size to our business."

Back in March, Novo Nordisk announced a cash discount for its Wegovy drug, letting customers buy it for $499 per month. Going forward, GoodRx will also offer both Ozempic and Wegovy at $499 per month for self-paying customers through its platform.

FDA approval for liver treatment

On Friday, Novo Nordisk said that Wegovy can now be used to treat adults with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) with moderate to advanced liver scarring (fibrosis), but not with cirrhosis of the liver — as long as those adults also reduce their calories and are physically active.

It added that Wegovy is the “first and only” glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist with approval from the FDA to treat adults with this condition. 

The FDA already approved Wegovy to help treat adults and kids 12 years and older with obesity, as well as to “reduce the risk” of death, heart attack, or stroke for adults with a known heart disease and who are overweight, the company said.  

Novo Nordisk gained FDA approval from part one of its ESSENCE trial where adults with MASH and moderate to advanced liver fibrosis injected its Wegovy 2.4 mg once every week for 72 weeks. The trial found that the drug showed a “statistically significant improvement” in liver fibrosis and didn’t worsen steatohepatitis, and in other cases resolved steatohepatitis and didn’t worsen liver fibrosis compared to its placebo. 

"The FDA's conditional approval of Wegovy for the treatment of adults with noncirrhotic MASH marks a truly pivotal milestone and a significant step forward for the MASH community and those seeking new options,” Moore said in the release. “This builds on the expanding body of evidence demonstrating the clinical benefits of semaglutide across a range of chronic conditions including diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular and chronic kidney disease."

Novo Nordisk filed for regulatory approval in the E.U. in February and in Japan in May. It noted it's still studying usage of the drug in adults with MASH to “confirm the clinical benefit.” 

— Catherine Arnst and Harriet Weber contributed to this article.