Monthly cost of a GLP-1

How it is calculated

Each price has a date and a source. For the United States we use the list prices the manufacturers publish; for Spain and Mexico, our drug database, which stores the price per pack, the date, and the source for each country and brand. These are the figures the calculator uses:

• US list price. It is the price the manufacturer sets before insurance, discounts, or rebates (Lilly calls it the wholesale acquisition cost). Most people with insurance pay much less, and what you pay depends on your plan. The manufacturers also sell directly to people paying without insurance at lower self-pay prices; they change often and some depend on conditions such as refill timing, so this calculator does not use them. Where the page gives no date, the date shown is the day we checked it.
• Doses per pack. Weekly pens hold 4 doses; the US Ozempic pen is counted as 4 weekly doses (Novo Nordisk defines a month as one pen), and a US Wegovy package holds 4 single-dose pens. Spain’s 1 mg Ozempic pen with 8 doses is counted separately. A box of Rybelsus and a bottle of Wegovy pills hold 30 tablets, one a day.
• Periods. A dose is one week (or one day, for tablets). Four weeks are 4 doses or 28 tablets. A year is 52 weeks: 13 packs of 4 doses or 364 tablets, not 12 months.
• Yearly cost. Only calculated for maintenance doses. Starting and step-up doses in the label last a few weeks, so multiplying them by a year makes no sense.
• First year. When there is a price for each strength, the calculator adds up the first year following the label’s dose schedule: each step lasts what the label says, or the minimum of 4 weeks when the label says “at least 4 weeks”, and the rest of the year stays at the chosen dose. It is the fastest possible case; in practice, the doctor may extend a step. US list prices are the same for every strength of a brand, so the first year costs the same as a year at maintenance. It is not calculated for Zepbound in the US or for Mounjaro in Mexico, where the sources do not say which strengths each price covers, nor for Ozempic in Mexico, where the 0.25 mg starting dose has no pen of its own: it comes out of the 0.25/0.5 mg pen.
• Rounding. Dollars and euros are rounded to the cent and pesos to the whole peso, once, at the end of each calculation. Where the source gives a range (Zepbound in the US, Mounjaro in Mexico), the calculation is done with each end.
• Spain’s SNS prescription. With a funded prescription you do not pay the retail price but a copay that depends on income and personal situation. The calculator does not turn it into a figure; the rules are in the Ozempic price in Spain guide (in Spanish).
• What it does not include. Doctor visits, lab tests, or needles when they are not in the box. Nor promotions, savings cards, or discounts, which are not the usual price.
• No currency conversion. Each country’s figures stay in its own currency, because exchange rates change daily and prices are set separately in each market.

Prices change; check the current price of your presentation with your pharmacy or insurance plan.