It’s rare to see the stock market cheer a company when it lowers its prices. But that’s what Wall Street just did, taking Eli Lilly to a record high on Tuesday (slightly eroded the next day) after one of the world’s only obesity treatment makers announced that one of its products was available across the Atlantic at half price.
Since reimbursement procedures are even more impenetrable in the United States than in Europe, this is, however, an optical illusion. The monthly cost of a thousand dollars for Zepbound comes to more like $650 for health insurers who cover it, according to estimates by Evercore ISI. So by offering the vial versions without the usual auto-injector to uninsured patients – paying directly in cash – from $399 to $549, the Indianapolis laboratory is not really making a financial effort.
