The federal government has not broadly promoted Medicare’s recent $50-a-month obesity-drug benefit, so two GLP-1 manufacturers, Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, are touting it themselves, according to Cost Curve.
The Medicare GLP-1 Bridge, which launched July 1, allows eligible Part D beneficiaries to access certain weight-loss drugs — including forms of Novo’s Wegovy and Lilly’s Zepbound — for a $50 monthly copay through the end of 2027. It grew out of a November deal between the administration and the two manufacturers.
Indianapolis-based Lilly has folded Bridge into its Zepbound advertising and run a separate ad promoting the program in The New York Times without naming the drug, according to Cost Curve, a newsletter from healthcare communications firm Reid Strategic. Novo Nordisk, which is based in Denmark, has advertised the program on Facebook.
The manufacturers are filling a broad awareness gap. A late-March survey of more than 2,100 adults 65 and older found 82% were unaware Medicare would begin covering obesity drugs at all.
The gap has direct consequences for clinicians. Because CMS runs Bridge directly rather than through Part D plans, private insurers have little role in educating patients — leaving hospitals, physician practices and pharmacists to identify eligible seniors and walk them through it.
