Contrave Alternatives & Comparison

The widest cost-to-effect spread in this market. STEP-1 reported −14.9% at 68 weeks for Wegovy; COR-I reported −6.1% at 56 weeks for Contrave. Contrave runs about $99 a month through the Currax direct program against Wegovy's $499 maintenance. Different mechanisms entirely — GLP-1 satiety against an opioid antagonist plus bupropion working on reward and craving. Contrave is also what many insurers make you fail first, which makes this comparison less hypothetical than it sounds.

SURMOUNT-1 reported −20.9% at 72 weeks for Zepbound; COR-I reported −6.1% at 56 weeks for Contrave at full dose. The cost runs the other way — about $99 a month through Currax against $349–$499 through LillyDirect. Contrave is oral, cheap, and frequently the step-therapy hurdle standing in front of the drug you asked for, which is the practical reason to understand what it does before dismissing it.

The comparison insurers force more often than they admit. Qsymia is the more effective of the two — −9.8% to −10.9% at 56 weeks in CONQUER and EQUIP against Contrave's −6.1% in COR-I — and the cheaper, with generic phentermine plus topiramate from about $50 against Contrave's $99 program price. They work differently: Contrave on reward and craving, Qsymia on appetite and satiety. Both carry contraindications a GLP-1 does not.