Costco to sell Ozempic and Wegovy, weight-loss wonder drugs

The popular weight-loss drugs Ozempic and Wegovy will soon be available at the warehouse chain Costco, as their manufacturer races to keep ahead of the competition, including many cheaper copycat versions.

The company, Novo Nordisk, said Friday that prescription-only injectable pens for both drugs will be sold at more than 500 Costco pharmacies in the United States.

Costco members with a prescription will pay $499 out of pocket for a four-week supply of either Ozempic or Wegovy.

That cost is about half of the list price for Ozempic, and about two-thirds less than that of Wegovy. The list price is the "sticker price" a company sets before any discounts, rebates or other reductions are given to wholesalers or pharmacy benefit managers.

Executive members and people with Costco Citibank credit cards will also get a cash back reward as part of the chain's prescription program. Costco's executive members and Costco Citibank Visa cardholders will get an additional 2% discount, Novo Nordisk said.

For members with health insurance, the price will depend on their plan.

"We continue to find new ways to make access to our medicines more convenient, meeting people where they are," a Novo Nordisk spokesperson said in a statement.

Novo Nordisk already sells a monthly supply of Ozempic and Wegovy for $499, each separately, at its direct-to-consumer website, and it offers the same discount at CVS and Walmart.

In February, the drug company Eli Lilly made a similar offering for vials of its weight-loss drug, Zepbound, for $499 per month or less.

Novo Nordisk followed in March by cutting the price of Wegovy to $499 per month for certain patients who pay out of pocket instead of going through insurance.

Novo Nordisk, a Danish company, announced last month that it would cut 9,000 jobs, or about 11% of its global workforce, as it sought to lower costs and rejuvenate its growth prospects. In May, the company replaced its chief executive.

Novo Nordisk's share price has plummeted more than 50% this year. Though the company reported $24 billion in global sales in the first six months of 2025, it has said that it expects growth to slow in the rest of the year.

Novo Nordisk's addition of Costco to its roster, though, has the potential to introduce a significant number of new customers, as many health plans continue to deny insurance coverage for the drugs.

More than 100 million people visit Costco for their groceries, and it's the third-largest retailer in the world by revenue, trailing Walmart and Amazon.

The active ingredient in Ozempic, as in Wegovy, Zepbound and several other similar new drugs, semaglutide, mimics a natural hormone, called glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1), that slows digestion and signals fullness to the brain.

An analysis of the longest and largest study on semaglutide, published last year, showed that participants who took the medication for four years were able to shed an average of around 10% of their body weight and sustain that weight loss.

About 7 million Americans take a GLP-1 drug, and Morgan Stanley estimates that the number of U.S. users could expand to 24 million by 2035.

A study analyzing prescription data from 2019 to 2023 found a significant increase, more than 700%, in new GLP-1 prescriptions for patients without diabetes who are overweight or obese.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.