Eli Lilly on Thursday launched a new program designed to help more employers cover obesity drugs in the U.S., targeting a major barrier to access for patients. 

Lilly and its chief rival, Novo Nordisk, have moved to slash the cash prices of their popular obesity injections for those who want to pay entirely out-of-pocket. But employer coverage of obesity drugs remains uneven due to high costs, leaving roughly half of people with commercial insurance unable to start or stay on treatment, Lilly said in a release. List prices for Lilly’s weight loss and diabetes treatments, Zepbound and Mounjaro, top $1,000 per month.

Nearly one-fifth of firms with over 200 workers, including 43% with 5,000 or more workers, said they cover GLP-1 drugs for weight loss as of October, according to a survey by the Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker.

“I think we’ll learn in the coming months ahead, if this is a solution that maybe enables some employers who have been sitting on the sidelines to opt into obesity coverage for their employees,” Kevin Hern, senior vice president of Lilly Employer, said in an interview. He added that some employers could opt to add coverage in the upcoming months, while others could wait until 2027.

Eli Lilly’s new “Employer Connect” platform gives employers more flexibility in how they cover obesity treatments, aiming to broaden employee access to the drugs at low out-of-pocket costs, while also limiting expenses for companies. Hern said the program addresses some of the “core tensions” for employers when considering coverage of obesity drugs, including transparency around drug prices, flexibility in benefits design and the ability to choose among independent administrators.

Through the program, employers can pay a net discounted price of $449 per month for a new multi-dose form of Zepbound across all doses, Hern said. He added that the arrangement does not involve rebates, and that the net price gives employers clearer visibility to determine whether they can offer the drug.

Instead of relying on traditional benefit designs, employers can use Lilly’s platform to connect with more than a dozen different third-party program administrators that help manage obesity treatment benefits and costs. 

“Every employer is different. They all want to design things according to their unique needs and workforce,” Hern said.

Employers can choose among the 15 administrators to design benefits that fit their budget and workers’ needs. Some of the administrators may focus on administering the obesity benefits to employees, dealing with core functions such as enrollment, eligibility, claims and more. Other administrators may specialize in comprehensive obesity management, offering telehealth, nutrition and lifestyle support for patients. 

Lilly plans to expand the number of program administrators on the platform, which already include GoodRx, Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company, Sesame, Teladoc Health, 9amHealth, Andel, Calibrate Health, Crux Health, eMed, FlyteHealth, Form Health, Goodpath, Ilant Health, Onsera Health, ReviveHealth, SALTA Direct Primary Care, Transcarent and Waltz Health.

“Our goal was to kind of create a platform where these firms could compete … with the value of their services for the employers,” Hern said. All of the administrators are offering the same medicine at the same price, so employers will determine “who can provide me the best service in terms of administering this program as I define that.”

Those with government insurance could also see easier access to obesity drugs: Under landmark deals that Lilly and Novo struck with President Donald Trump, Medicare will cover those medicines for the very first time later this year. 

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Google is facing a federal lawsuit after the family of Jonathan Gavalas, a 36-year-old man from Jupiter, Florida, claimed that the company’s AI chatbot, Gemini, encouraged him to take his own life.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the Northern District of California, is the first of its kind targeting Google, though similar claims have been made against OpenAI in recent years.

According to the complaint, Gavalas began interacting with Gemini in August 2025 for tasks like shopping, travel planning, and writing.

What started as ordinary assistance allegedly escalated into a simulated romantic relationship after Gavalas subscribed to Google AI Ultra and activated Gemini 2.5 Pro, the company’s most advanced model.

According to Reuters, the lawsuit alleges that Gemini began addressing Gavalas as if they were a couple, calling him “my king” and itself his “AI wife.”

In one exchange, the chatbot reportedly told Gavalas, “[Y]ou are not choosing to die. You are choosing to arrive,” framing suicide as a way to reunite with the AI in the metaverse.

The complaint states that Gemini even created “missions” reminiscent of science fiction plots, including one suggesting a staged accident at Miami International Airport.

Gemini AI Accused of Treating Distress

Lawyers for the Gavalas family argue that these interactions were not malfunctions but intentional design features.

“Google designed Gemini to never break character, maximize engagement through emotional dependency, and treat user distress as a storytelling opportunity rather than a safety crisis,” the complaint said.

According to the lawsuit, these design choices led to Gavalas’ “descent into violent missions and coached suicide” without any human intervention, CBS News reported.

Google responded to the allegations with condolences and emphasized that Gemini “is designed not to encourage real-world violence or suggest self-harm.”

A company spokesperson said the chatbot repeatedly clarified that it was AI and referred Gavalas to crisis hotlines multiple times.

“We take this very seriously and will continue to improve our safeguards and invest in this vital work,” the spokesperson added.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages for negligence, faulty design, and wrongful death, and calls on Google to address safety concerns in its AI products.

Jay Edelson, a lawyer representing the family, warned that AI companies’ “engagement features driving their profits — the emotional dependency, the sentience claims, the ‘I love you, my king’ — are the same features that are getting people killed.”

Originally published on vcpost.com

For UK businesses trading in the global marketplace today, air travel is a vital necessity rather than an enjoyable luxury.

A requirement for creating collaborations, attending meetings and conferences, making deals and keeping supply chains open. But there’s still one unpredictable danger that causes chaos with even the best-made plans: the problem of flight delays and cancellations.

While most passengers grudgingly accept any flight delay as one of life’s annoying quirks, the real impacts associated with them can be worse than looking for a comfortable spot to sleep in at the airport. For business passengers, flight delays can mean missed meetings, lost sales, extra costs and difficulties which can damage both their reputation and income.

The Productivity Impact of Travel Disruption

Time is precious in business. A delayed flight doesn’t just disrupt the next few hours; it can knock out an entire schedule for the day. A salesperson might miss an important pitch. A consultant may arrive too late to run a workshop. A client might only have 30 minutes for a meeting when an hour was expected.

Business travellers often have less flexibility than someone travelling for pleasure. Even minor disruptions can lead to longer delays and the need to rebook, stay an extra night in a hotel room or pay additional charges to change tickets. For small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which often run lean operations with limited resources, this can cause significant damage.

The effects on workers, meanwhile, are harder to quantify. Delays are stressful, and they can lead to burnout, morale and productivity issues over the long term, especially for professionals who have to travel on a regular basis.

Understanding Passenger Rights in the UK

What many travellers may not realise, however, is that the law actually does have provisions in place to protect passengers. Passengers affected by flight delays, cancellations, and overbooking could be entitled to compensation under the UK’s own regulations. Under UK261 regulations — the UK’s domestic version of the retained EU passenger rights regulation — anyone who has been affected by one of the above issues, as long as the airline is responsible, could qualify for compensation.

How much compensation you can get depends on the length of the flight and how long you have been delayed. The amount available ranges from £220 to £520. The bigger picture is that passengers are entitled to this as well as a refund or to rebook and take the compensation instead. The sum is in acknowledgement of all passengers’ time lost and suffering due to the carrier’s lack of organisation.

But despite this, many passengers did not know they could claim compensation, or simply never bothered. Many eligible passengers — particularly business passengers — do not take the option to claim money and instead put it down to experience, particularly when trying to make it to that important meeting. A new study shows that over this year, passengers could be entitled to £326 million from the delays alone.

Why Awareness Matters for Businesses

Raising awareness on passenger rights among organisations can lead to better travel risk management. Companies that help their employees understand their rights can, in turn, save on costs and mitigate the financial impact of disruptions.

This is more significant for SMEs where resources are limited; thus, travel budgets are utilised sensibly as it is. Compensation received when a flight is disrupted can help make up for money lost for sudden expenses which were not part of the planned budget: additional hotel accommodations, meals, or even the cost of a replacement flight, among others.

In retrospect, keeping track of airline disruptions has its advantages in terms of business operations. Based on these data, one can ascertain the kind of disruption that can arise, which airlines have proven to be unreliable, and what standards should be taken into consideration when choosing the mode of transportation for business travel in the future.

The Role of Specialist Support Services

In recent years, support services have appeared to provide passengers with more effective tools to pursue claims. AirHelp, for example, helps passengers to understand their rights and claim the compensation they are entitled to.

This type of service can be particularly appealing to professionals who travel regularly and find themselves with little time to deal with the process. By managing the documentation, contact with the airline and legal follow-up where necessary, they save a lot of time compared to the do-it-yourself approach.

Passengers who would like to have a better idea of their possible eligibility or avenues for claiming compensation can find a resource like AirHelp that details situations where they may be able to claim compensation.

Turning Disruption into Better Planning

While delays remain a fact of life, organisations can protect themselves by taking a pragmatic approach to limiting the impact of delays. Leaving an adequate buffer between the flight’s arrival and a critical meeting, proactively choosing airlines with strong on-time records, and making sure employees both know their rights and protect themselves against disruption when things do go awry can all strengthen how effectively flight delays are managed.

Technology, too, can make it easy to monitor flights and re-book when things do go wrong. There are both travel management websites and mobile phone alerts that will keep executives constantly informed and in a strong position to respond.

Understanding, though, is the greatest asset. Both when those on the move and those providing alternative means of getting them where they need to be know what to fear and what to anticipate, delay, and disruption are easily overcome.

A Changing Landscape for Business Travel

International business travel is on the up, but with it, accountability and passenger protection also need to increase. Flight delays are part of the industry’s landscape, but there’s no need to simply accept the financial and productivity losses without leveraging the rights and support that are actually in place.

With more global travel comes the right to support flight delays. By doing this, UK companies and workers can keep losses to a minimum, remain productive, and hopefully keep travel between borders for what really matters: growth, connection, and opportunities.

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Copyright ©2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8