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Special Report Eli Lilly's Employer Push Could Unlock New GLP-1 DemandReported by Leo Miller. Originally Published: 3/15/2026. 
Key Points - Eli Lilly is opening up a new way for employers to cover their weight-loss drugs.
- With half or more of employees not having coverage for obesity medications, Employer Connect could unlock significant demand for LLY.
- Meanwhile, the company's oral GLP-1 just beat out Novo's in a head-to-head type 2 diabetes duel.
- Special Report: Elon Musk: This Could Turn $100 into $100,000
The world’s most valuable pharmaceutical stock, Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY), has continued to assert its dominance in the weight‑loss and diabetes drug market in 2026. The company’s most recent earnings report forecast robust 25% growth for the year, well above expectations. While that would be slower than the 45% growth Lilly generated in 2025, it would still mark the company’s third‑highest annual growth rate in its history. Lilly’s current GLP‑1 franchises should continue to see strong sales increases, but growth at 2025 levels cannot be sustained indefinitely. San Francisco is the strangest city in America right now—you can hop into a self-driving car and be chauffeured by a robot, but out the window you see addicts slumped in doorways, open-air drug markets, the mentally ill screaming at the sky, and entire city blocks consumed by homeless encampments. It's ground-zero for the most disruptive technological forces of our age, and Erez lives in the Bay Area plugged into the capital, the connections, and the companies reshaping the world—the advancements in AI, blockchain, computing, and biosciences are unlike anything the world has seen before, and a tsunami of disruption is coming for everything all at once. During our most recent broadcast, we exposed what we're calling the most asymmetric opportunity of our careers: an overlooked financial company hiding a multi-billion-dollar blockchain asset Wall Street hasn't priced in—it's one of those rare situations Warren Buffett would describe as raining gold when all you have to do is step outside if you want to get rich. Watch the broadcast before the window closes now By contrast, Lilly’s top competitor, Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO), is forecasting one of its weakest revenue years in recent memory: sales are expected to fall by between 5% and 13% in 2026. Measured in U.S. dollars, the company hasn’t seen a revenue drop of more than 5% since 2014; measured in Danish kroner, that streak stretches back to 1998. That contrast highlights Lilly’s comparatively stronger position, particularly for injectable GLP‑1s that are currently available on the market. At the same time, Lilly is taking steps to further strengthen its lead. Two key priorities: expanding access to its medicines and winning the oral GLP‑1 race. Employer Connect: Lilly’s Bid to Close the Large Employer Coverage Gap One of Lilly’s most significant recent moves is the launch of its Employer Connect platform. The program is designed to address a major gap in employer‑sponsored obesity care: Lilly notes that roughly half of people on employer plans don’t have coverage for obesity medications. One survey found that only 20% of companies with more than 200 employees cover weight‑loss drugs, and just 43% of companies with 5,000 or more employees do so. That represents a substantial untapped opportunity for Lilly. When employers don’t provide coverage, patients must pay out of pocket. Through LillyDirect, patients currently pay between $299 and $449 per month for Zepbound. Lilly is offering employers access to Zepbound at a discounted rate (about $449), with employees responsible for only a small copayment. That employer price is less than half the drug’s list price, which is over $1,000. Employer Connect also bypasses traditional pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which act as intermediaries between drugmakers and insurers and often have opaque pricing arrangements. The PBM industry is highly concentrated, giving these firms significant negotiating leverage. Instead of routing through PBMs, Employer Connect lets companies choose from more than 15 independent program administrators and select the one that best fits their needs. Lilly aims to have these administrators compete on the services they offer, rather than relying on a handful of dominant PBMs. If employers adopt the program at scale, Lilly could see meaningful new Zepbound sales. However, significant revenue contributions may not materialize until 2027 as employers evaluate the new option and implement changes. There is a potential trade‑off: if employers that already cover Zepbound shift to Employer Connect, Lilly could face lower pricing for those patients. Given the large coverage gap, however, Lilly appears willing to accept that risk in exchange for the volume growth Employer Connect could unlock. Lilly Wins a Head‑to‑Head in the Smaller Oral Type 2 Diabetes Market Lilly also reported positive results for its experimental oral GLP‑1, orforglipron. In a head‑to‑head trial against Novo’s approved oral GLP‑1, oral semaglutide, orforglipron produced superior reductions in both blood sugar and weight for patients with type 2 diabetes. Oral semaglutide is marketed as Rybelsus and has been on the market since 2019. A1C, a key blood‑sugar marker, fell by 2.2% for patients on orforglipron versus 1.4% for those on oral semaglutide. Patients on orforglipron also lost 9.2% of body weight, compared with 5.3% for patients on oral semaglutide. Those results are encouraging as Lilly seeks approval for orforglipron as an oral treatment for type 2 diabetes. Still, the oral type 2 diabetes market is relatively small within the broader GLP‑1 category: Novo’s Rybelsus generated roughly $3.5 billion in sales in 2025, versus about $32.5 billion combined for Ozempic and Wegovy that year. Lilly is also pursuing an oral obesity indication for orforglipron, which could open a much larger market opportunity. LLY Keeps Opening New Doors to Drive Future Growth Overall, Lilly continues to expand potential customer bases by improving access and advancing its pipeline. Even as the company has grown into a giant, its track record of execution and product innovation makes it a difficult stock to dismiss. | 
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