Cost basics for a first-time reader

Prices for these medicines move often enough that a beginner page with numbers on it would be wrong within months. So this page has no prices. It has the structure, so that when you see a number you know what it is a number for. The dated prices live on the network's GLP-1 Pricing Index, on the Tirzepatide Hub cost page and the Semaglutide Hub, and in FormBlends' own GLP-1 cost report.

1. Which product

Brand and compounded are different products at different prices, and the difference in price is a difference in product, not a discount. Brand Wegovy, Zepbound, Ozempic and Mounjaro are FDA approved and made by Novo Nordisk or Lilly. Compounded semaglutide and tirzepatide are made by pharmacies, are not FDA approved, and are not interchangeable with the brand products (FDA, Human Drug Compounding). FormBlends, which runs this site, sells the compounded kind and discloses that on the brand versus compounded page.

2. Which route to it

For brand products there are four common routes and they price differently:

• Insurance with coverage. You pay the plan's copay or coinsurance, often after a prior authorization. See insurance basics.
• Insurance plus a manufacturer savings card. Lilly and Novo Nordisk offer cards that lower the copay for people with commercial insurance; the cards do not apply to Medicare, Medicaid or other government coverage, and each has a monthly cap and a set of terms. The card pages change; read the current terms.
• Manufacturer self-pay. Lilly sells Zepbound directly through LillyDirect and Novo Nordisk sells Wegovy and Ozempic directly through NovoCare Pharmacy at published cash prices. For Zepbound vials the price differs by strength, so your monthly cost changes as you move up the titration ladder.
• Retail cash price. The list price at a pharmacy without insurance or a program. Usually the highest number you will see.

For compounded products there is normally one route: the telehealth program or pharmacy that dispenses it, at a price it sets.

3. Which dose

Brand pens are priced per box of four regardless of strength in most insurance and list-price settings, but manufacturer self-pay vial programs price by strength. Compounded vials are often priced by total milligrams in the vial, which means the same monthly price can buy a different number of doses depending on where you are in escalation. If a quote is "per vial", ask how many milligrams the vial contains and how many milligrams your dose is. The cost per mg tool puts two quotes on the same footing.

4. What is bundled

A monthly figure may or may not include the prescriber visit, follow-ups, labs, shipping, the syringes and alcohol swabs for a vial, and a program membership fee. Ask for one all-in number per calendar month, not per 28 days, and ask what happens to it at each dose step. The Pricing Index's true monthly cost calculator is built for exactly that reconstruction.

5. How long

Every weight-management label says the drug is for long-term use, and the pivotal trials ran 68 and 72 weeks. Whatever the monthly number is, multiply it by at least twelve before deciding, and read the myths page on what the trials found after people stopped.

Questions to take to a quote

1. Is this the brand product or a compounded product?
2. What is included in the monthly price, and what is billed separately?
3. How does the price change at each dose increase?
4. If it is a vial, what concentration and total milligrams?
5. Can I cancel month to month, and what is the refund policy on medicine already shipped?

The network's FormBlends Reviews site scores telehealth programs, FormBlends included, on pricing transparency using one published rubric, if you want to compare how different programs answer those five.