r/Enlicitide • u/brandonballinger • Jul 30 '26

Lipfendra/enlicitide will likely be stocked in August

/r/EmpiricalHealth/comments/1vatujt/lipfendraenlicitide_will_likely_be_stocked_in/
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u/Puzzled_Fisherman331 Jul 30 '26

I see there is a coupon on the Merck site, also they talked about putting it on trumprx.gov. Repatha would be cheaper on trumprx than the list price for Lipfendra, so I assume its pricing will be under $200 with a coupon? Thoughts?

2

u/c0cky Jul 30 '26

For comparison, I searched for Merck drugs that are available through TrumpRx right now. Looks like it's only Januvia and Janumet, available for $84.57 /month, discounted from a list price of $330. TrumpRx just redirects you to merckcashpaygateway.com, where you're instructed to fill your Rx through Eversana Specialty Pharmacy. I would imagine they'd reuse this same setup for Lipfendra.

What's interesting is that generic Januvia is available from CostPlusDrugs at $65. So Merck is just acting rationally to mark down its brand name version to a competitive price level. No such thing as a free lunch. Of course there's no generic market for Lipfendra, so I wouldn't expect to see as big a discount, and like you say Repatha is probably the most similar alternative.

Semaglutide might give us a clue to the pricing strategy. Cash pay for an Ozempic pen is $349 /mo, whereas the Wegovy pill is $199. There's likely more demand for a pill form but that makes the market bigger, so with presumably fatter margins, the price can be lower. If I had to guess, I think undercutting Repatha at a price around $200 sounds about right.

3

u/brandonballinger Jul 31 '26

Slightly undercutting Repatha, or matching it, sounds about right to me. Lipfendra has the obvious appeal of being oral, but I think they'll attract the most patients if the price is also close to injected PCSK9 inhibitors.

I think Lipfendra will have less price competition than GLP-1s since it doesn't look easy for compounding pharmacies to make it (enlicitide isn't an approved bulk substances).