Wegovy Coverage Ends Just As Pants Start Fitting, 2026 Cost Projections Look Like A Horror Movie, And Gilead Protects Executive Lake Houses With Price Hikes

Hey all, 

Happy Thursday! shows just how much of healthcare’s cost spiral runs straight through the pharmacy. Insurers are pulling back coverage on pricey GLP-1s, employers brace for double-digit drug cost growth by 2026, and Gilead is hiking HIV drug prices even as public programs already struggle to afford them. Different drugs, same story—when pharmacy is the margin machine, patients end up paying the bill one way or another.

Enjoy the rundown!

Jacob Brody (Co-Founder & CEO, ZorroRX)

(KFF Health News via ABC News) Prescribing & Deprescribing GLP-1s Comes At A Cost

Insurers and Medicaid programs are increasingly restricting or limiting coverage of costly GLP-1 weight loss drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound, even as research shows patients often regain weight when treatment stops. With list prices around $1,000 a month and projected spending reaching billions, payers are exploring “deprescription” strategies—such as time limits or tapering off—while companies promote behavioral alternatives to sustain weight loss. Funny how obesity policy is the only area where we treat long-term treatment like a luxury, cutting people off after a couple of years as if weight regain—and the health risks that follow—don’t matter. Full Article

(HUB International) 2026 Healthcare Trend Study

Benefits broker HUB International projects U.S. healthcare costs to rise 8–10% in 2026, with prescription drugs leading the increase at 10–12%, largely driven by expensive specialty medications and GLP-1 drugs for diabetes and obesity. Regional variations are notable, with the East and Pacific showing the highest cost pressures, while pharmacy costs now account for more than half of drug spend, making management strategies like biosimilar adoption and restrictive coverage critical. But hey, I hear there’s this company called ZorroRX that just so happens to lower costs on exactly the meds driving all these increases. Full Article.

(STAT News) Gilead HIV Drug Price Hikes

Gilead Sciences is seeking high single-digit price increases on several of its HIV medicines supplied through state AIDS Drug Assistance Programs (ADAPs), sparking alarm among health officials who warn such hikes could force waitlists and cost-cutting measures. Since ADAPs already spend about 60% of their $972 million drug budget on Gilead treatments—and federal HIV funding has remained flat for over a decade—advocates fear the proposed increases, far outpacing inflation, could destabilize access for 110,000 low-income patients nationwide. But hey, before you criticize Gilead, think of the struggling executives at Gilead Headquarters in Foster City, California who might have to survive with only one vacation home in Tahoe. Full Article