Ozempic And Glp-1 Drugs Are Changing Walmart’s Sales

GLP-1 medications, a category that includes treatments used for diabetes and weight management such as Ozempic, are having a significant impact on Walmart’s sales in the United States. After boosting the retail giant’s growth over the past few years, changes in pricing and the evolution of the pharmaceutical market are reducing their contribution in 2026.

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Walmart revealed in its second-quarter fiscal 2027 results that during fiscal years 2025 and 2026, sales of branded GLP-1 medications contributed approximately 100 basis points to comparable sales growth in the United States.

For fiscal 2027, however, the company expects that benefit to be roughly half as much, as growth in prescription volumes is being more than offset by pressures related to pricing and product mix.

The phenomenon helps explain an apparent slowdown at Walmart U.S. that does not necessarily reflect weakness in food, general merchandise, and other core retail categories.

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How are GLP-1 medications affecting Walmart’s sales?

GLP-1 medications have become an important growth driver for U.S. pharmacies in recent years amid rising demand.

Walmart was one of the retailers that benefited. During fiscal years 2025 and 2026, branded GLP-1 medications added around one percentage point to Walmart U.S. comparable sales growth. However, the situation began to change in FY27.

Although prescription volumes continue to increase, Walmart expects the benefit of GLP-1 medications to its comparable sales to be approximately 50 basis points, half the 100 basis points recorded in each of the previous two fiscal years.

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Another factor is also putting pressure on pharmacy revenue: deflation and the shift from branded drugs to generics under the first year of maximum fair price regulation.

Walmart had initially estimated that this effect would reduce comparable sales by around 100 basis points for the fiscal year. In the second quarter, the pressure approached 125 basis points, prompting the company to update its full-year FY27 estimate to that level.

Walmart U.S. sales grew 2.6%

The combination of both factors is having a considerable impact on Walmart’s overall performance indicators.

Walmart U.S. comparable sales increased 2.6% during the second quarter, driven by higher transactions and volumes, but were partially affected by approximately 125 basis points of pharmacy-related pressure associated with pricing regulations.

The company explained that, when considering both the lower contribution from GLP-1 medications and changes in pharmaceutical pricing, there has been a net shift of nearly 200 basis points in comparable sales growth compared with the pace of the previous two years, entirely related to Health & Wellness.

The impact is significant because it can make Walmart U.S.’s overall growth appear weaker than the performance of its core categories.

Walmart’s core business continues to grow

Excluding Health & Wellness, Walmart said its core categories have performed considerably steadily.

Over the past two and a half years, comparable sales in those categories have generally remained within a 3% to 4% quarterly growth range, a trend the company expects to maintain during the second half of the fiscal year.

In food, for example, sales increased at a mid-single-digit pace during the second quarter, with solid unit growth and further market share gains.

For this reason, Walmart emphasized that pharmacy-related pressure primarily affects the revenue figure and does not mean that Health & Wellness has ceased to be an attractive business.

Pharmacy customers are worth up to three times more to Walmart

In fact, Walmart considers Health & Wellness consumers to be one of its most important customer groups. The company said prescription volumes continue to grow and that it is gaining pharmacy market share.

Moreover, when a consumer becomes a Health & Wellness customer, they spend on average three times more than the average Walmart customer.

Their value increases even further when e-commerce comes into play. According to Walmart, when that consumer also begins using home delivery for medications, their spending nearly doubles again.

The company is therefore seeking to connect its pharmacy business, digital capabilities, and local store network to increase convenience and deepen its relationship with those shoppers.

The results reveal a paradox for Walmart: GLP-1 medications continue to generate prescriptions and attract valuable customers, but they are no longer driving sales at the same pace as in the previous two fiscal years. Changes in pricing, regulation, and pharmaceutical mix are reshaping the impact of a category that had become one of the unexpected growth engines for the largest U.S. retailer.