Noom is the latest digital health company to jump into the off-label weight loss drug market to make medications more accessible to consumers.
The company, which developed an app that helps people lose weight by focusing on behavioral change, launched a new service to offer a compounded GLP-1 drug at a starting price of $149 for the first month and then $279 for subsequent months. Noom contends that market prices of brand-name medications can be 8x higher.
Noom will pair the new product, Noom GLP-1Rx, with its nutrition and exercise program designed to help users prevent muscle loss. The company also offers a "taper-off guarantee" by providing a protocol for users to gradually reduce reliance on the medications while maintaining their weight loss, the company said in a press release.
The program provides a year of free Noom or substantial medication discounts to anyone who regains the weight within 18 months following a 12-month course of Noom GLP-1Rx, including Noom’s taper protocol.
The company already offers access to branded GLP-1 medications such a Ozempic, Zepbound, Wegovy and Mounjaro. The off-label medications contain the same active ingredient, compounded semaglutide, as major brand-name medications. These medications are provided in partnership with a Food and Drug Administration-regulated 503B compounding pharmacy, the company said.
Through this new offering, Noom members will be evaluated by board-certified physicians with expertise in obesity and weight loss to qualify for the weight loss medication. Medications will be delivered to a patient’s door in seven days from the time of order, according to the company.
The price tag on branded weight loss drugs like Wegovy can total more than $1,000 a month per person without insurance.
“Noom GLP-1Rx addresses the biggest real-world problems with GLP-1s: poor persistence and lean muscle mass loss,” Noom CEO Geoff Cook said in a statement. “Evidence demonstrates the vast majority of people, 6 out of 7, are not on these medications forever. They lose lean muscle mass and regain the weight, risking conditions like sarcopenic obesity, leaving them potentially worse off than before they started the medication. People need affordable access to these important medications, and then they need an offramp off of them. We designed Noom to be that offramp. Our goal is not to sell more medications; it’s to achieve sustainable, lasting weight loss for our members.”
Noom is the latest digital health company to offer cheaper alternatives to expensive, trendy weight loss drugs. Virtual marketplace Sesame rolled out a new weight loss program that gives eligible consumers access to compounded semaglutide, an ingredient in blockbuster obesity drugs Wegovy and Ozempic, for $249 a month.
Hims & Hers and Ro also offer direct-to-consumer weight loss programs and, for eligible consumers, access to compounded semaglutide drugs. Ro also provides access to branded weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic.
Hims & Hers launched its weight loss program in December and recently added compounded GLP-1 medications to its offerings. Through Hims & Hers, weight loss medications start at $79 per month for oral medication kits and $199 per month for compounded GLP-1 injections, according to the company. Pricing includes unlimited medical consultations with a licensed provider, the company said.
Federal lawmakers, particularly Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, have questioned the steep prices of drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy. In a letter to the CEO of Novo Nordisk, Sanders contends that Novo charges Americans with obesity $1,349 a month for Wegovy, while this same exact product can be purchased for just $140 in Germany and $92 in the U.K.
Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is scheduled to testify before the Senate HELP Committee on Sept. 24.
More than 250 clinicians signed a letter (PDF) to the Senate HELP Committee expressing concern about the lack of patient access to novel non-insulin diabetes and weight loss medications due to exorbitant prices set by manufacturers.
There can also be limited availability of branded weight loss medications due to drug shortages.
Noom also is calling on policymakers and regulators to "take into account this increase in demand and maintain compounding exemptions until the price of the brand-name medications in New York and Los Angeles match their price in London and Sydney," Cook said in a statement.
"The bottom line is these medications should be $200-$300 a month, not $1,300. Policymakers and regulators should demand this or keep the shortage in place to meet the very real demand at these lower prices—the same prices at which these medications are available in the rest of the world. As a longer term solution to address this problem, we also call for bi-partisan legislation to cap drug prices or extend shortages until the brand-name price falls. More supply at a reasonable price is needed right now, not less," Cook said.