Express Scripts Coverage, FDA Label Update Boost Rybelsus With Chart: Current Market Access to GLP-1 Medications
Access to Novo Nordisk’s Rybelsus (semaglutide) — the first oral glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1) to treat adults with type 2 diabetes — got a major boost Jan. 17 when Novo said Express Scripts, part of Cigna Corp., will cover the agent. Rybelsus was approved in September 2019 and is available as a once-daily tablet version of the drugmaker’s Ozempic (semaglutide), a weekly injection launched in 2018.
“We’ve been keeping a keen eye on the new 2020 formulary postings, watching weekly and monitoring all the big payers’ formularies, and it’s been interesting to note that it looks as though Novo is still in negotiations” for Rybelsus, Jeffrey Casberg, M.S., R.Ph., director of clinical pharmacy at IPD Analytics, tells AIS Health. “You would think by now more often than not you’d see more formularies updated, and we haven’t seen that yet.” IPD provides drug intelligence and consulting to stakeholders across the pharmaceutical landscape.
