Health tech companies tap into Novo’s new GLP-1 cash prices Read in browser

Tuesday, 18 November 2025

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Pricier premiums As the government shutdown ends, it’s looking less and less likely that ACA subsidies will get extended. The subsidies are due to expire at the end of the year, and there are early (and also maybe too late) ideas to do something. President Donald Trump, for instance, has promoted the idea of passing subsidies directly to consumers. The Senate Finance Committee is due to meet on Wednesday to talk about healthcare costs. But even if there is subsidy relief — through an extension or otherwise — open enrollment is already underway with the higher premiums. “We’re talking about the very basis of our economy, and the people who make our economy work,” Oscar Health CEO Mark Bertolini said on CNBC last week. He gave an example of a farmer making $60,000 in gross income, whose monthly insurance premium is going from $75 to $300, as one of the types of people who are being hurt without the subsidy extension.   We’ve been expecting that subsidies wouldn’t get extended ever since the 2024 presidential election. Ending subsidies, as Shelby covered that week, “could shrink the individual insurance exchanges, diminishing the prospects for companies like insurance upstart Oscar that have bet big on that market.”  - Lydia

Here’s what’s new Exclusive: Thrivory raises $3.5M to help clinics get paid upfront within seconds Thrivory belongs to a new wave of startups that, furnished by recent advancements in technology, has made it possible for clinics to handle billing, paperwork and other administrative tasks more efficiently. Hims launches lab testing for preventive care Hims & Hers is launch­ing lab test­ing for health mark­ers in ar­eas like heart health and me­tab­o­lism as blood test­ing grows more pop­u­lar with con­sumers who want to bet­ter un­der­stand their health. Novo Nordisk lowers self-pay prices for weight loss drugs ahead of Lilly, TrumpRx No­vo Nordisk said Mon­day it will im­me­di­ate­ly drop its cash-pay prices for megablock­busters Ozem­pic and We­govy to $349 per month, more than six weeks be­fore Eli Lil­ly’s ri­val weight loss drug Zep­bound is ex­pect­ed to match that price.

One in Eight 18 The percentage of adults who reported ever having taken a GLP-1 medication, according to a KFF Health Tracking Poll. 12% reported currently taking a GLP-1 medication, up from 6% in May 2024.

This week in health Тech GoodRx is now selling Novo Nordisk's weight loss drugs Wegovy and Ozempic for $199 a month for the first two fills of the lowest doses and launching a virtual weight management program. It comes as Novo on Monday announced a price drop for the medications.  Digital health platform Ro is also doing the same, selling Wegovy for $199 a month but only for the first two months. It’s planning to offer GLP-1 weight loss drug Wegovy as a pill once the oral version of the drug is available too. Hims & Hers named former FDA official Deb Autor as its first chief policy officer. The appointment of Autor, a Hims board member who previously oversaw global regulatory operations at both the FDA and AstraZeneca, comes as Hims runs into FDA scrutiny for misleading marketing over its compounded weight loss drugs.

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