Modern Metabolic Health with Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

How The Zepbound Multi-Dose Kwik-Pen Works

• Lindsay Ogle, MD

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We break down the LillyDirect Zepbound multi-dose Quick Pen and how it differs from the weekly single-use pens many people get at the pharmacy. We share practical injection steps, storage rules, and clinician-guided dosing strategies that can improve tolerability and sometimes reduce out-of-pocket costs.
• what the LillyDirect multi-dose pen is and why it is different from single-use pens
• how the labeled pen strengths work and what you receive for a month
• checking the medication window for clarity before use
• attaching a new single-use needle each injection and disposing in a sharps container
• priming the pen and dialing to “1” for a full dose
• injection sites to consider such as abdomen thigh upper arm
• room temperature versus refrigerated storage and the 30-day window
• why you should not switch between room temperature and refrigeration
• why freezing can make medication ineffective
• split dosing concept for side effects early week and hunger later week
• counting clicks for partial dosing and marking the dial
• discussing higher-strength pen strategies with your prescriber for affordability
• where to ask questions on YouTube or by email and social channels

If you're on YouTube, please comment below or send me an email, support at Missouri Metabolic Health.com.
Follow me and reach out to me on TikTok or Instagram, Dr. Lindsay Ogle,
If you found this information helpful, please share with a friend, family member, or colleague.
We need to do all we can to combat the dangerous misinformation that is out there.
Please subscribe and write a review.
This will help others find the podcast so they may also improve their metabolic health.

LillyDirect

How to use Zepbound KwikPens

Here is the information for which type of needles to purchase for Zepbound KwikPens and this is a link to example sold by CVS and another example sold by Amazon Pharmacy.

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Welcome And Medical Disclaimer

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

Welcome to the Modern Metabolic Health Podcast with your host, Dr. Lindsay Ogle, Board Certified Family Medicine and Obesity Medicine Physician. Here we learn how we can treat and prevent modern metabolic conditions such as diabetes, PCOS, fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea, and more. We focus on optimizing lifestyle while utilizing safe and effective medical treatments. Please remember that while I am a physician, I am not your physician. Everything discussed here is provided as general medical knowledge and not direct medical advice. Please talk to your doctor about what is best for you.

Why The Multi-Dose Zepbound Pen

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

This is a new option where previously LilyDirect only provided Zepbound through single-use vials. And I'm really excited to review this new pen option because there gives this pen gives us a lot of flexibility. And I've been, you know, using this pen with many of my patients and having really great results. So I want to share with you, and you can bring back this option to your physician or healthcare provider to see if it is right for you. If you are listening to this on a podcast platform, this is a talk that I highly recommend you check out on YouTube. My YouTube channel is Metabolic Health with Dr. Lindsay Ogle. I have the link below because I'm going to show you on a demo pen how to use Zepbound multi-dose pen, the quick pen. And so it will be very helpful to see this in video format on YouTube. So please check that out for this video. But hopefully, if you, you know, are an audio learner listener, then you still get something out of the podcast. But having the video would be very helpful. Of course, this is not medical advice, this is general medical, you know, clinical knowledge that you can learn from and take back to your doctor for specific advice for what is best for you.

Doses Labels And What You Receive

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

Today we're talking about this Zepbound quick pin. Um, I have a sample demo pin here. Um, so this is not the real pen. Um, there's no medication in this. Um, but I wanted to share this with you because this pen is very different than the um Zepbound pin that you get if you get your medication at the pharmacy. So this is Zepbound single-use pens. So there is these pens are meant to be used once a week. There's one dose of medication in these pens from the pharmacy. And then this pen, there are four doses of medication in here. So there's multiple doses in one pin. So instead of getting four pens for a monthly prescription, you get one pin for your month prescription. And for right now, these pens are not available at local pharmacies. This is only through LilyDirect. And I'll include a link below for their website so you can learn more about LilyDirect. Um, but each pin will have a designated dose. So there is the starting dose pin, which is 2.5, and then there is the 5 milligram pin, there's a 7.5, a 10 milligram, a 12.5, and a 15 milligram pin. And so there are six pens that have those six different strengths. And so, for example, if you were prescribed for your first month a 2.5 milligram pin, that one pin is going to have four doses of 2.5 milligrams in it. And then the following month, if you're increased to the five milligram pin, that 5 milligram pin is going to have four doses of 5 milligrams in it. Um, and then so on and so forth up to the 15 milligram pin, which has four doses of 15 milligrams. And so it's the same amount of fluid in each pen, but this like concentration of medication is different, and that's how they're able to do different strength pens with the same size pen.

How To Prime Dial And Inject

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

So the way to give yourself this medication is, like I said, different obviously than the single dose pen. And I'm going to include a link for Lily's instructions on how to use the pen, but I'm gonna go over it a little bit here as well. Um, so when you take, you get your pen, you'll take the cap off, and then you will in the real pen, there will be a window. Um, actually, don't know if it's here or here, but you will see the fluid with the medication, and you want to make sure that it is you know clear or very, very light. And then you would want to clean the top with that alcohol swab, and then you'll put your needle on. You'll twist it on. There's one, you want to, these are single-use needles, so you use them one time for each injection. And I will include a link for how to buy additional needles if you need them, um, ones that will fit this pen. So after you have your needle on, you're going to want to prime your pen. And to do this, you just turn the knob until the pointer is at this long line. So it was previously at zero, and then you're going to want to turn it to that long line. So it's about two turns. And then you will hold your pen up, and again, this would have the needle on it if it was a real pin, and you just hold it there for about five seconds, and then you should see the line go back to the zero. And then after about five seconds, you let it go. And that's how you prime your pen. It's very, you should see a small drop of medication come out of that needle. Um, that's expected, that is right, then your pen is working correctly. To then prepare your pen for your medication. You need to again twist the knob, but you're going to twist it all the way, and then it starts to kind of come out like this, like a ribbon. Until you get one, and all of the pins will say one. Um, no matter what dose the pen is, you'll know what your pin strength is, it'll say it on the label. So you're gonna always want to check that to make sure you're given the right pin, but it's going to say one on here, and then you've you know gotten it, the spring ready to give yourself the injection, and then you'll hold it against your injection site, somewhere on your stomach, your thigh, upper arm. I'll just hold it against my hand. Again, there's no needle here, and then you'll hold it there, and then you will press the end of the pin, and then it'll give you your medication that way. And then it should go back to the zero because you've given yourself your weekly injection. And then once you've given yourself the injection, you'll want to take that single-use needle off, put it in a sharps container, and then you would put the cap back on, and you can put it back in the refrigerator to keep you know refrigerated.

Storage Rules For Best Effect

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

Or if you want to keep your pen at room temperature, that is absolutely fine. You just want to use it within 30 days. After 30 days, it may decrease the efficacy of the medication. It does not make it dangerous, it just may not be as effective as if it were kept in the refrigerator. But very importantly, you do not want it to go between room temperature and refrigerated. Once it gets to room temperature, it should stay there and then it should never be frozen. That will also make the medication ineffective. So,

Split Dosing And Counting Clicks

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

what um other than having a single pen compared to single-use vials and getting four vials and drawing up the medication and giving yourself the injection that way, there are a few other benefits of this pen. Um, one is that it gives us more flexibility in how we give the medication. So this allows us to do what we call split dosing. So if you are somebody who tends to have maybe a lot of side effects or a lot of appetite suppression the day, two days, maybe three days after your injection, but then towards the end of the week, you are having a lot of food noise again, your hunger is up, you're not as full, um, and you're just you know waiting until you can give yourself that next injection and really struggling. You may ask your doctor if it's right for you to do split dosing. And what that would be would be if you were on the let's say 10 milligram dose of Zepbound, you would take five milligrams on one day, and then three to four days later, take another five milligrams. So you're splitting your weekly dose into two doses. Now, of course, this has not been studied, this is not what Lily recommends doing, but this is done in clinical practice and something that may be an option. So, how do you do that? Um, with these pens, as you saw in the demo, you are twisting and you know, there are clicks that are happening. You can see those little dashes that are um you know that are noted as you're making that um twisting the cap. Um so to do a half dose of your strength, you would count um count the clicks um for halfway to that one that's indicated. And there are 66 0 clicks until you get to one dose. So to do your half dose, if you're doing a split dosing throughout the week, you would want to count to 330 clicks. And a really great tip is that you can take a marker or a pen and you can count those 30 clicks once and then make a mark there. And then for your future doses, you don't have to carefully count each click, you just turn the dial to that mark that you made previously. And what is also really nice with these pens, if you overshoot it, you can dial it back and go back to you know a previous mark with the pen. So it goes it dials both ways. You can go this way and you can go that way. Um and so that would be how you would um do the split dosing. And say, say this was mark, this was halfway through. Um, same thing as I said before with giving yourself the dose, you would just hold that against your skin, um, hold the medication against your skin, and then press the button, and it would give you that amount of medication, and then you're done. Um, and it takes you back to the zero. So you can give yourself your dose when you're due next.

Cost Strategies With Higher Strength Pens

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

So split dosing is a wonderful option. Um, another thing that can be very, very helpful for patients who are using the Legirect and paying out of pocket for their Zepbound is that if your doctor is comfortable doing this, they could prescribe a higher strength pin than you are taking. And this is something that needs to be done very carefully, and again, in constant communication with your prescriber. So an easy example again would be the 10 milligram pin. Could be prescribed to somebody who is only taking five milligrams a week. You could again turn the dial to 30 clicks or notches, and then give the five milligram dose, which is half of that prescribed strength, uh, weekly. And the benefit of that is that pin, which was created to last four weeks, would now last eight weeks, which can save people money each month and over time, it could save hundreds and thousands of dollars, depending on what strength you're on for maintenance. And the most extreme example would be somebody who is on 2.5 milligrams weekly for their Zep bound. If they were prescribed the 15 milligram pin and they dialed only to the 2.5 equivalent, which would be 10 clicks, that pin would now last them six months instead of just four weeks. And it would be the equivalent of $75 a month. So having this multi-dose pen, having the flexibility of doing split dosing and um adjusting the dose can really help to individualize obesity care and make it more affordable for many people. Another thing it makes me think of are people who um probably would do better at an in-between dose. This is a little bit more technical and definitely needs to be um planned with your doctor. And so for anybody who is curious about this approach, I have a chart that I'm going to share here as well as link to so you can have access to what that might look like. And again, talk to your doctor about this. Obviously, they're gonna be the one prescribing you the pen. And so you need to be on the same page of what the prescription's going to be and how you're going to dose yourself each week or twice a week if you're doing the split dosing.

Questions Contact And Final Takeaways

Dr. Lindsay Ogle, MD

So I'm curious, is this something that you are doing already with your doctor? Is it something that you're interested in? Are there any clarifying questions? If you're on YouTube, please comment below or send me an email, support at Missouri Metabolic Health.com. Follow me and reach out to me on TikTok or Instagram, Dr. Lindsay Ogle, and I would be happy to help on your journey. Um, again, that none of this is direct medical advice. I'm just sharing information that I have learned as an OBC medicine physician and through my practice Missouri Metabolic Health with treating my patients. So I hope you learned something that'll help either yourself or a loved one. And I can't wait to talk again next week. Take care. Thank you for listening and learning how you can improve your metabolic health in this modern world. If you found this information helpful, please share with a friend, family member, or colleague. We need to do all we can to combat the dangerous misinformation that is out there. Please subscribe and write a review. This will help others find the podcast so they may also improve their metabolic health. I look forward to our conversation next week.