Lilly Reports Lower Medical Spending Among Older Zepbound Users
Updated 23 September 2026
What Is Happening
Eli Lilly reports lower medical spending among adults over 55 who used Zepbound, the weekly weight-loss injection made by Lilly. Researchers compared these patients with similar adults who had not started a GLP-1 medicine. All had overweight or obesity and did not have diabetes.
The study used existing U.S. health insurance records. Researchers matched 15,843 Zepbound users with people of similar age, health and other characteristics to make the groups more comparable.
After 12 months, two ways of analysing the records estimated monthly medical spending to be $319 and $607 lower per Zepbound user. Lilly also reported fewer hospital admissions and emergency visits in the main analysis. The figures concern recorded medical spending, rather than a promised saving for an individual patient.
The estimates leave out the price of Zepbound, so they do not show whether treatment reduced costs overall. Patients were not randomly assigned to treatment; differences between the groups could also help explain the findings.
Sources (1)
Companies Involved
Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly develops and manufactures medicines for diabetes, obesity, cancer and other diseases.
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