Bank of America's GLP-1 Spending

Bank of America has quietly built up one of the biggest corporate GLP-1 medication bills in the country. The number now tops $250 million a year. CEO Brian Moynihan confirmed the figure on Wednesday, and he sounded surprisingly upbeat about it.

To understand why, look at the scope of the bank’s workforce. Bank of America employs about 211,000 people. Its yearly healthcare budget sits above $2 billion. That puts GLP-1 costs at roughly 13 percent of total health spending for employees.

This wasn’t always the case. Four or five years ago, according to Moynihan, the company spent almost nothing on this drug class. Getting from zero to $250 million in that short a window says a lot about how fast demand has grown.

So how do these drugs actually work? GLP-1 medications copy hormones the body naturally produces to manage appetite and blood glucose. Semaglutide is the active ingredient behind Ozempic and Wegovy. Tirzepatide does similar work under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound.

Regulators have signed off on these drugs for specific uses. The FDA approved them to treat type 2 diabetes. Certain versions also carry approval for ongoing weight management in people with obesity. All of them are prescription-only, so nobody is picking these up without a doctor’s sign-off.

There’s a health angle here that goes beyond the scale on the bathroom floor. Some research now links GLP-1 drugs to a lower cardiovascular risk in patients already managing heart disease. That’s in addition to their more familiar impact on weight loss and blood sugar control. Moynihan pointed to this heart benefit as one reason the bank keeps footing the bill.

Coverage isn’t the whole story, though. The bank also offers health coaching alongside the medication, so employees have support while adjusting their habits. Moynihan admitted plenty of workers will leave before they see the full benefit play out. He still thinks it’s the right call.

Not every company agrees. A July survey from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans polled more than 30,000 organizations. Just 36 percent of employers currently cover GLP-1 drugs for both diabetes and weight loss. That’s only a small rise from 34 percent in 2024, and it hasn’t moved at all since 2025.

Among those that do offer coverage, the numbers tell a striking story. GLP-1 drugs made up 11.4 percent of annual healthcare claims in 2026. Back in 2023, that figure was just 6.9 percent. In three years, costs have nearly doubled.

Drugmakers have taken notice of how much employer decisions shape their sales. Eli Lilly introduced a new pricing option in March aimed at winning over more companies. Employers can now buy a multi-dose version of Zepbound for $449 a month across every dosage level. Novo Nordisk has pursued similar deals to keep pace.

Even with these discounts, prices stay high for people without solid coverage. A year’s supply can still cost thousands of dollars out of pocket. That gap between what big employers negotiate and what regular patients pay remains one of the thorniest issues in this entire market.

Change may be coming from Washington, too. The Trump administration recently reached pricing agreements with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly through a new platform called TrumpRx. Under the plan, monthly prices for Ozempic and Wegovy are expected to drop from $1,000 and $1,350 to $350. Medicare patients with obesity and related conditions could pay as little as $50 a month for Wegovy or Zepbound.

Even so, don’t expect the access problem to disappear overnight. Large, self-insured companies like Bank of America can negotiate hard with pharmacy benefit managers. Smaller businesses and public employers usually lack that same bargaining power. As more patients turn to these drugs, that imbalance will likely keep shaping who can actually afford them.