The pharmacy pays $1,302. The patient pays $299

The Business of Health Care Sep 28, 2026• By JOHN SAMARAS A US retail pharmacy pays $1,302 to acquire one month of branded Wegovy. That figure comes from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services National Average Drug Acquisition Cost file, effective August 19, 2026, for the 25 mg oral tablet at 30 tablets a month. The cheapest cash price I verified on a seller’s own published page, for the same month of the same product, is $299. That is oral Wegovy at the maintenance dose, at Sam’s Club Member Health, which sells at the manufacturer’s published self-pay price, checked August 31, 2026. The two numbers are more than a thousand dollars apart. Where the second number comes from Every Monday I check what each US GLP-1 telehealth program publishes as its price, on the program’s own page, and record it. Not the advertised starting rate. Not the prepaid annual plan divided by twelve. The all-in monthly cost of staying on the drug at a maintenance dose. This month that record turned into an index. Across a fixed panel of 11 programs the median all-in price was $348 a month in August, the same figure in all five weekly checks. It did not move against July. One program cut its price in...