Your Boss Might Soon Buy Your Wegovy and Zepbound Directly

Original posted at obesity.news/ on Nov 21, 2025

In a way that feels almost too simple for the system we have lived under, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly are about to do something that will finally cut through the maze of insurance middlemen (PBMs) and expand GLP-1 access to employees. They are getting ready to sell their injectables directly to employers. No pharmacy benefit managers in the middle. No rebate games. No shell game pricing. Just the drug and the cost. Straight up. Props to our friend Madison Muller over at Bloomberg for being first with the scoop!

This is happening because employers are fed up with a system that tells them one thing, charges another, and then turns the entire situation into a massive guessing game. They just want clarity. They want control. And honestly, they want to stop being told that the drugs their workers are pining for are somehow too complicated to get covered.

Starting January 1 of 2026, Wegovy and Zepbound will be offered through Waltz Health, a digital health company that focuses on helping employers buy medication at real, predictable prices. Employers will pay a fixed amount up front. No fees. No rebates. No hidden deals with a pharmacy benefit manager behind closed doors. Just a straight purchase that lets them offer coverage without playing the exhausting, costly game the system has forced on them for years.

And people are already lining up. Waltz Health’s CEO says four companies have already signed on, and he called this the absolute cheapest way for people on employer plans to get these medications. That is a huge statement, because it cuts directly into the business model that pharmacy benefit managers have built. These are the companies who currently negotiate prices for about 165 million workers. These are the companies that have kept coverage for obesity medications put of reach and unpredictable. These are the companies employers depend on because they feel they have no other choice.

Now they have one.

The first employers stepping into this new model are the ones who currently offer no coverage at all for weight loss drugs. They have tens of thousands of workers who have been denied access because PBMs would not put these medications on the plan or because the prices were so unpredictable that employers could not justify the risk. Only 43% of companies with more 5,000 workers offer any coverage for obesity medications. That means most people are still locked out.

This new model flips the power dynamic. The CEO described the program as an open source marketplace where drugs compete on their clinical ability to help people and on price. That is all patients have ever wanted. A fair shot based on the medicine that works best for them, not the one that fits a rebate spreadsheet.

For Novo and Lilly, this is another move toward taking control of access. First they built their direct to consumer programs. Novo Pharmacy. Lilly Direct. Programs that cut out insurers and made GLP-1 medication available at real prices for cash payers. Now they are doing it for employers. The pressure is building. And it is reaching the exact audience that has been blocked from coverage the longest.

What this means for patients is simple. Some of you may see doors crack open in places that have been sealed shut for years. Some of you may finally walk into your HR office and hear something other than random exclusions and legal jargon. Some of you may get your first yes.

Share this article with anyone who has been told their employer could never cover these medications. Today there is more hope. Share it with your HR department. Share it with anyone who has been forced to stay sick because PBMs decided obesity care was optional. When you have navigated the system as long as we have, any sign of change matters, and this one matters more than most.

This article is reader-supported on Substack.

To receive new posts and support my work,

consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Subscribe