Getting a particular medication covered that is excluded from plan?

Hi, first time poster here. ETA: age 34, located in northern Virginia

I am on my husband’s health insurance through his employer, which is an extremely large company, to the point where the insurance company has its own customer service line just for this company. They provide Cigna and we pay like $700+ a month for coverage for ourselves and our new baby. Considering that this is a large chunk of his income, I’m a little annoyed that the ONE thing I get prescribed, I apparently cannot get.

Today I received a prescription for a weight loss drug, Wegovy (semaglutide), that is apparently super backordered and hard to get a hold of. The pharmacy calls almost immediately after receiving the Rx to tell me they don’t have it and might not for months. After doing a little digging I found out on Reddit that I might be able to get it via CVS Caremark. Great. I call Cigna and they tell me that on the plan we have, they actually do all their prescriptions through CVS Caremark and not their usual pharmacy, and they transfer me to CVS Caremark. Great.

The rep I spoke to looked up my info and tells me that my plan apparently excludes Wegovy and instead has a preferred medication, Saxenda (liraglutide), that they approve instead. This is confusing because I know Cigna does generally cover Wegovy for weight loss, but apparently my husband’s company has some issue with this and excludes it? From what I understand, Saxenda (liraglutide) is significantly less effective and presents more side effects. I am not keen on asking my doctor to switch me over. Paying for Wegovy out of pocket is out of the question, as it’s like $1200 a pop. Insurance will not cover ozempic even though it’s the same drug, because I don’t have type 2 diabetes. Apparently there isn’t a generic.

Wegovy has a letter template on their website that one would present to their HR reps to request coverage, although since I’m the spouse of an employee and it’s such a massive company, I don’t know how well that would even work. My doctor has expressed a willingness to talk to the insurance company on my behalf (he was really friendly and said something like, don’t worry, if I have to fight with your insurance company I will) but does that even work if the exclusion is put in place by the employer? Why would they even exclude this drug in favor of one that is less effective? What if he finds that the drug they prefer is contraindicated?

Basically, what can I do to get this prescription covered? Do I have my husband submit a letter from my doctor to his benefits/HR people and hope for the best? Can my doctor do anything? Please help. Thank you.