Amgen, other drugmakers launch DTC programs

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Drugmakers are increasingly using telehealth platforms to sell their medicines on to patients – and it’s exactly what President Donald Trump wants. 

Amgen is the newest company to wade into the direct-to-consumer space, announcing on Monday that it’s going to offer its cholesterol-lowering drug Repatha at a money price 60% below its current list price before insurance and rebates. It follows similar moves by other drugmakers to simplify how Americans get their medicines and political pressure from the Trump administration to lower U.S. drug prices.

Trump in July sent letters to 17 drugmakers urging them to take specific steps to curb costs for patients, including launching direct-to-consumer sales models for his or her medicines. Corporations had to reply by Sept. 29. It was a part of his effort to revive a controversial plan called the “most favored nation” policy, which goals to tie the costs of some drugs within the U.S. to the significantly lower ones abroad.

As a part of that plan, Trump said his administration will launch an internet site called TrumpRx.gov, which may have branded drugs available for direct purchase at a reduction online. For instance, under a brand new agreement with Trump, Pfizer said it’s going to offer a big share of its primary care treatments and certain specialty branded drugs on that site at discounts of fifty% on average and as much as 85%. 

The pharmaceutical industry’s direct-to-consumer programs typically offer a heavily discounted money price, together with free shipping, to individuals who buy directly from the businesses with money, quite than filling their prescriptions at brick-and-mortar pharmacies and paying with their medical insurance cards. By embracing a direct-to-consumer sales model, drugmakers can bypass middlemen reminiscent of pharmacy profit managers and potentially capture among the billions of dollars in revenue that flow through those intermediaries annually.

Here’s your guide to the industry’s current direct-to-consumer models. 

• Amgen – The corporate’s recent program, AmgenNow, is starting with Repatha. This system’s money price of $239 a month is sort of 60% below Repatha’s current list price and is open to all patients, including those that are uninsured or in high-deductible health plans or prefer to pay with money. Amgen said its recent money price for Repatha matches the bottom it now receives in any economically developed country.
• Eli Lilly – Eli Lilly in January 2024 launched its own direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, LillyDirect, to assist patients access its weight reduction drug Zepbound. The web site allows eligible patients to get a prescription through a telehealth provider and may provide home delivery. More recently, LillyDirect also began offering Zepbound in single-dose vials which are half and even lower than its usual $1,000 monthly list price. The pharmacy also sells medicines for diabetes, Alzheimer’s and migraines, amongst other conditions, on to patients. 
• Novo Nordisk – The corporate in March said it’s going to offer its weight reduction drug Wegovy for lower than half of its usual price per 30 days through a brand new direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, NovoCare. The cash-pay offering is out there to hundreds of thousands of patients without insurance coverage for the blockbuster injection. Novo Nordisk in August also began offering its diabetes drug Ozempic at that price point – $499 per 30 days – to eligible cash-paying patients via its own pharmacy and a partnership with telehealth company GoodRx. 
• Pfizer – The corporate in August 2024 launched a direct-to-consumer service called PfizerForAll, which help patients schedule telehealth services, fill their prescriptions, and access savings programs for the corporate’s migraine, Covid-19 and flu medicines.
• AstraZeneca – The corporate in September announced the launch of AstraZeneca Direct, which can directly sell its diabetes drug, Farxiga, and two asthma treatments to cash-paying U.S. patients at a reduction of as much as 70% off their list prices. Individuals with prescriptions for those drugs will have the option to organize them from the platform starting Oct. 1. 
• Novartis – The corporate in September said it will launch a direct-to-consumer platform on Nov. 1, allowing cash-paying patients prescribed its immunology medication Cosentyx to buy it at a 55% discount off the list price. The discount brings down the drug’s list price to a little bit over $3,500 from under $8,000 per 30 days. The corporate said Cosentyx will function a option to test the sales model. If it’s successful, the corporate will offer a direct-to-consumer option for added medicines and explore an analogous approach for giant employers “as one other option to increase access and affordability.”
• Bristol Myers Squibb – The drugmaker and its partner, Pfizer, in July announced the launch of a direct-to-patient online program, Eliquis 360 Support, which began selling the blockbuster blood thinner at a 43% discount to cash-paying patients in September. Bristol Myers Squibb expanded its direct-to-consumer offerings in September, announcing that the BMS Patient Connect Platform will offer plaque psoriasis drug Sotyktu at a reduction of greater than 80% off list price to eligible cash-pay patients within the U.S. starting in January. 
• PhRMA – The U.S. pharmaceutical lobby group said it might launch a brand new website, AmericasMedicines.com, next January to assist patients buy pharmaceuticals directly from manufacturers.

We expect the pharmaceutical industry to strike more drug-pricing deals with Trump, which could include recent direct-to-consumer models for medicines, so stay tuned for our coverage.

Be happy to send any suggestions, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at a brand new email: annika.constantino@versantmedia.com.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz has an ambitious list of goals on the agency to assist improve the nation’s health system. I spoke with him about his biggest priorities during a wide-ranging discussion on the Aspen Institute on Monday.

In relation to Reasonably priced Care Act enrollment, he expressed hope that Congress will come to an agreement to finish the continuing government shutdown and extend ACA tax credits that are set to run out at the tip of the yr. With the shopping period for ACA open enrollment set to start Oct. fifteenth, the clock is ticking.

In Medicaid, Oz said CMS is making progress to assist states leverage technology to implement recent work requirement verification rules enacted by Congress earlier this yr. He said the agency has been in talks with tech startups he called “insurgents” to attach them with states with a view to streamline the rollout.

“The goal can be to present states several options,” Oz said. “Pick the thing that you think that most readily works with you and your system and the present platform you have got.”

One in every of his biggest goals is to make drugs more cost-effective for Americans, he said.

“I imagine by the point the president’s term is finished — and I made this commitment to him — 95% of all drugs in America might be at pricing we are able to feel happy with,” he said.

He touted President Donald Trump’s most favored nation drug pricing effort and direct sales platform TrumpRx as an enormous a part of that. He also endorsed Medicare drug price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act as one other piece of the puzzle, saying his team has been “negotiating aggressively” throughout the current round of talks.

Then the discussion got really interesting once I asked him what he considered Medicare paying for pricey GLP-1 weight reduction drugs.

He said that as a physician, he’s intrigued by what the drugs can do. But then he demurred on insurance coverage.”It is the only query I’ll should punt,” he replied, adding “we’re in the course of a whole lot of motion, but you may be hearing more about it very soon.”

During Trump’s first term, the administration pushed drugmakers and pharmacy profit managers to chop costs to $35 per 30 days. That is now the rule in Medicare.

Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic is among the many drugs now subjects to the value negotiations for 2027. You may’t help but wonder if Oz is seeking to leverage that Medicare discounted price across the health system.

Hearken to that a part of the discussion here.