An Eli Lilly and Corporate pharmaceutical production plant is pictured at 50 ImClone Force in Branchburg, New Jersey, March 5, 2021. REUTERS/Mike Segar/Document Picture Achieve Licensing RightsDec 5 (Reuters) – Eli Lilly (LLY.N) mentioned on Tuesday its lately authorized weight problems remedy Zepbound is now to be had in U.S. pharmacies and may value $550 a month for patrons whose medical health insurance does no longer duvet the drug, or part the checklist value.Zepbound is the most recent entrant to the fast-growing marketplace for weight-loss medicine, which is predicted to develop to about $100 billion by means of the top of the last decade.Wall Boulevard analysts be expecting gross sales of Zepbound to succeed in about $2 billion in 2024. Novo Nordisk’s tough weight problems drug Wegovy is predicted to make $7.3 billion in gross sales subsequent yr, in keeping with Barclays analyst Emily Box.Each drugs are GLP-1 agonists, a category firstly designed to regard kind 2 diabetes.Zepbound used to be added to the U.S. checklist of most well-liked drugs by means of a minimum of one primary drug advantages corporate, Cigna (CI.N).Pharmacy get advantages managers create lists, or formularies, of medicines lined by means of insurance coverage and reimburse pharmacies for sufferers’ prescriptions.Lilly mentioned its business financial savings card program used to be now to be had at pharmacy chains. Below this system, Zepbound may value as low as $25 for sufferers whose insurance coverage covers the drug, and $550 for the ones whose insurance coverage does no longer.The U.S. Meals and Drug Management authorized Zepbound in November and Lilly mentioned then it could release after Thanksgiving.Zepbound has a listing value of $1,059.87 a month when compared with a listing of $1,349 per-package for Novo’s wildly common Wegovy.Lilly’s weight problems drug has the similar energetic element, tirzepatide, as its up to now authorized diabetes drug Mounjaro, which has been used off-label for weight reduction since its 2022 release.Eli Lilly’s stocks have surged 60% this yr within the run-up to the advent of Zepbound and the drugmaker has claimed the 10th spot within the checklist of the sector’s most useful indexed firms by means of marketplace capitalization.Reporting by means of Patrick Wingrove in New York and Manas Mishra and Khushi Mandowara in Bengaluru; Modifying by means of Arun Koyyur and Alexander SmithOur Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Accept as true with Ideas. Achieve Licensing Rights, opens new tab