LillyDirect enables consumers to get prescriptions for weight-loss drug Zepbound
Eli Lilly And Co (NYSE:LLY) today launched LillyDirect, a website that allows consumers with obesity to get prescriptions for its weight-loss drug Zepbound via telehealth, and offers home delivery options. The move stands in direct competition with WW International (WW), which bought telehealth provider Sequence to offer users access to drugs that suppress appetite, such as Novo Nordisk's (NVO) Ozempic and Wegovy.
LLY was last seen up 1.6% at $627.50, and earlier surged to a record high of $631.18. Shares are today on track for their fourth-straight daily win, after yesterday staging their biggest single-day percentage pop since November. In the last 12 months, LLY added 71.8%.
Options traders are blasting Eli Lilly stock, with 25,000 calls and 11,000 puts exchanged so far today, which is four times the intraday average volume. Most popular is the weekly 1/5 630-strike call, where new positions are being opened.
This penchant for bullish bets has been the norm lately. At the International Securities Exchange (ISE), Cboe Options Exchange (CBOE), and NASDAQ OMX PHLX (PHLX, the stock's 50-day call/put volume ratio of 2.10 ranks higher than 99% of readings from the past year.