The news: Novo Nordisk is partnering with WeightWatchers to offer discounted Wegovy to cash-pay customers. Starting July 1, WeightWatchers members can have their Wegovy prescriptions fulfilled and delivered by Novo’s D2C pharmacy, NovoCare.

Novo is also slashing the cash-pay price of Wegovy to $299 for new patients between July 1 and July 31. After the first month, the price will go back up to $499 per month.

Why it matters: Novo just ended a similar partnership with Hims & Hers and is looking for new telehealth providers to expand access to Wegovy. Novo’s one-time discount is designed to capture consumers who were previously taking compounded semaglutide.

WeightWatchers has 3.4 million subscribers—135,000 of whom are members of its medical clinic, which offers GLP-1 prescriptions. That's a similar customer size to Hims, which has 2.4 million subscribers and added 200,000 new weight loss customers last year.

Yes, and: WeightWatchers has struggled amid the GLP-1 drug craze. It recently filed for bankruptcy after racking up over a billion dollars in debt. The company’s stock reached a peak price of over $100 in 2018, but is now a penny stock.

WeightWatchers built its customer base by offering nutritional guidance, point-based weight loss programs, and meetings where people motivated each other. Interest in those services faded as the weight loss drug boom began, driving WeightWatchers to buy a telehealth company, Sequence, that prescribed GLP-1s. But it never fully figured out how to offer traditional weight loss support as well as access to GLP-1 prescriptions.

Our take: WeightWatchers is recognizing that diet culture is being replaced by weight loss medications accessible via virtual care.

Hims’ loss is WeightWatchers’ win, as the offering through NovoCare will be attractive to consumers looking for affordable brand-name GLP-1s without using insurance. To stand out from other Novo’s other telehealth partners, WeightWatchers should lean into marketing that positions the company as a pioneer weight loss brand that’s now meeting consumer demand for GLP-1s.

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