Wholesale giant Costco entered the GLP-1 chat earlier this month when it announced it would sell Danish biotech Novo Nordisk’s weight loss medication through its pharmacies.

As of Oct. 3, Costco will offer Wegovy and Ozempic for $499 per month, a discount off list prices of $1,349.02 and $997.58, respectively, for patients paying out of pocket. The wholesaler’s announcement is the latest partnership in Novo Nordisk’s strategy to offer more affordable options for its diabetes and weight loss medications.

Pankit Bhalodia, partner at consultancy West Monroe, told Healthcare Brew he’s “not super surprised” Costco is selling discounted GLP-1s “given the sheer demand” of the medication and the fact that direct-to-consumer (DTC) offerings are becoming more common in biotech.

For one, Novo Nordisk already offers Wegovy and Ozempic through its own DTC site, NovoCare Pharmacy, also for $499 a month. It offered that price through partnerships with other big pharmacies like Walmart and its wholesaler Sam’s Club as well as CVS and drug discount company GoodRx.

But experts say it’s unlikely to shake things up too much.—CM

President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) will pull back federal funding from health and science-related initiatives and is challenging HR leaders in the healthcare sector to consider how such decisions will affect their budgets, and in turn, in their workforces.

Changes to Medicare and Medicaid that are set to take effect in January of 2026 have already triggered layoffs at health systems like Providence, Adventist Health, and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

Medicaid is the most common form of health coverage in the US after employer-sponsored insurance, and hospitals are set to lose a significant source of revenue should patients lose coverage due to provisions included in the OBBBA. The roughly $900 billion cut to the federal health insurance program included in the bill could result in annual job losses of more than 300,000 by 2034, according to an analysis published in JAMA Health.

Keep reading on HR Brew.—CV

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