Eli Lilly launches Zepbound obesity drug pen with one month of doses

Eli Lilly on Monday launched a new form of its blockbuster obesity drug, Zepbound, that offers a month’s worth of doses in a single pen.

Cash-paying patients can get the multi-dose device, called KwikPen, on the company’s direct-to-consumer website, LillyDirect. Prices start at $299 per month for the lowest dose level. 

The pen could serve as a more convenient option for some patients, as it reduces the number of devices they have to use in a month to take the drug. Patients can use one pen to take four weekly doses of Zepbound. 

Currently, patients on the treatment use a different single-dose auto-injector device each week. Lilly also offers single-dose vials of Zepbound, which require users to draw the medication into a syringe and inject themselves. 

The announcement comes as Lilly works to sustain the early success of Zepbound, which has exploded in demand since it first entered the market in late 2023. LillyDirect has been key to Zepbound’s growth, and rolling out a new form of the drug on the platform could attract even more patients. 

The torrid growth of Zepbound has helped Eli Lilly seize a majority share of the weight loss drug market from rival Novo Nordisk. In the company’s fourth quarter, Zepbound brought in $4.2 billion in U.S. revenue, a 122% spike from the previous year.

In a release, Lilly said the Food and Drug Administration approved a label expansion for Zepbound to include the multi-dose device.

The KwikPen is already used for other drugs, such as Lilly’s popular diabetes medication, Mounjaro. 

“As part of our commitment to supporting people living with obesity in their weight management journey, we are introducing a new option with the Zepbound KwikPen, a device trusted by patients globally and in the United States for other Lilly medicines,” said Ilya Yuffa, president of Lilly USA and Global Customer Capabilities, in the release.