Eli Lilly put discounted Zepbound vials into Walmart pharmacies for in-store pickup

Eli Lilly is a drugmaker whose direct-to-consumer platform, LillyDirect, sells Zepbound vials to cash-paying patients.

Adding in-store pickup at the largest US retailer will broaden Zepbound's direct-to-consumer cash-pay channel beyond home delivery.

LillyDirect launched in January 2024, more than a year before Novo Nordisk's own platform, first through telehealth partners. In August 2024 Lilly began offering Zepbound vials for cash at more than 50% below list price.

After that cut, LillyDirect reached what Mazur called an inflection point, with direct-to-consumer sales now more than a third of new Zepbound prescriptions. Novo was expanding Wegovy access through a deal with CVS and its pharmacy benefit manager, Caremark.

On 29 October 2025 Lilly and Walmart announced that from mid-November cash-paying patients with a prescription could buy Zepbound vials at Walmart's nearly 4,600 pharmacies or via home delivery: $349 a month for the starting dose and $499 for all others.

Lilly wanted to maintain dominance over Novo Nordisk in the booming GLP-1 market.

Direct-to-consumer already accounted for over a third of new Zepbound prescriptions after the August 2024 cash-vial price cut.

Walmart is the fifth-largest US pharmacy by 2024 prescription dispensing revenue and the largest retailer, giving a nationwide pickup network.

A direct-to-consumer drug platform still needs a physical pickup option for patients who trust a local pharmacist; Lilly rented the footprint instead of building one.

As of 29 October 2025, the Walmart pickup option was due to start in mid-November, Lilly had not given an estimate of its reach, and Lilly was one of the drugmakers without a pricing deal under the Trump administration's 'most favored nation' policy.