Drugmaker Eli Lilly announced on Thursday a latest website that may allow patients to get a weight reduction drug prescription through a telehealth provider — a move, the corporate says, that may improve access to the extremely popular and effective drugs, including its recently approved drug, Zepbound.
The brand new website, called LillyDirect, joins a growing list of platforms like Weight Watchers and Ro offering weight reduction drugs through telehealth, but is the primary of its kind from a pharmaceutical company.
It comes lower than two months after the Food and Drug Administration approved Lilly’s weight reduction drug Zepbound. The drug is the most recent entrant into the sphere of the powerful — and pricy — class of medicines called GLP-1 agonists, which incorporates Lilly’s Mounjaro in addition to Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy.
“We’re used to purchasing consumer goods directly from manufacturers on a regular basis on online web sites,” said Lilly CEO David Ricks. “It really hasn’t been an option that is been provided before” for pharmaceuticals.
Ricks said the brand new platform will make it easier for patients to access the drugs, cutting out the necessity to go to the doctor to get a prescription after which to a pharmacy to fill it. Patients who’re prescribed Zepbound shall be eligible for Lilly’s at-home prescription delivery service.
There won’t be price discounts for any of the medications through the web site, nevertheless, which, at a listing price of greater than $1,000 for a month’s supply and often not covered by insurance, puts them out of reach for many Americans. Patients will still need to fulfill the factors for the burden loss drugs, that are meant for long-term use, not quick weight reduction.
Some experts, nevertheless, expressed concerns concerning the platform and raised questions on Lilly’s financial motives.
“What fuels my skepticism is that the stakes are so high,” said Arthur Caplan, the top of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in Latest York City.
Other firms also offer weight reduction prescriptions through telemedicine, but not a drug company with its own weight reduction drug, Caplan said.
“There’s a lot money that is going to maneuver with these injectables,” he said. “That creates at the least the looks of conflict of interest.”
Lilly itself is not providing the telehealth services. As a substitute, LillyDirect will connect patients with the telehealth provider Form Health, whose obesity medicine doctors will work with patients to find out whether a prescription is suitable.
Neither Form Health nor its physicians will receive financial compensation for prescribing Lilly’s drug, Ricks said.
Evan Richardson, the CEO of Form Health, said that patients who’re prescribed a weight reduction drug will meet over video with a physician on an ongoing basis, typically once a month.
The doctors will work independently and can have the ability to prescribe any FDA-approved weight reduction drug — they will not be required to prescribe Lilly’s Zepbound.
But only those prescribed Zepbound shall be eligible for Lilly’s at-home prescription delivery service, Ricks said.
Telehealth for weight reduction drugs
With dozens of telehealth services already offering prescriptions, LillyDirect faces plenty of competition. It isn’t clear what percentage of patients get their weight reduction drugs or any medication through telehealth, however the platforms may be vital for individuals who live too far-off from a physician.
“These are populations which are underserved minorities who reside in rural areas based away from urban areas,” said Dr. Saurabh Chandra, the chief telehealth officer on the Center for Telehealth on the University of Mississippi Medical Center, who has no ties to either Lilly or Form Health. “Roughly 18% to twenty% of the population reside in rural areas.”
On top of that, there may be a shortage of primary care physicians, he said. “You mix the 2, now you may have an absence of access to health look after these populations.”
Still, not all experts are convinced that a telehealth provider backed by a significant pharmaceutical company is the perfect approach.
“It appears like blurring the lines,” said Dr. Shauna Levy, a specialist in obesity medicine and the medical director of the Tulane Bariatric Center in Latest Orleans. Levy has no ties to Lilly or Form Health.
Lilly said the web platform is barely intended for individuals who currently meet the factors for a weight reduction drug within the U.S.: Individuals with a BMI of at the least 30 or a BMI of at the least 27 with at the least one weight-related medical condition.
Form Health’s physicians can have full discretion over who they prescribe the medications to, or if a weight reduction drug is the suitable fit for a patient. The drugs can include negative effects including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Richardson, the Form Health CEO, said the telehealth company has multiple layers of protection to be certain that physicians are only serving patients who meet the factors for weight reduction drugs. That features verifying the patient’s medical information and ensuring their driver’s license aligns with their height and appearance. The corporate may even send a scale to the patient’s home.
Ensuring the suitable patients are getting the medications is “a crucial aspect of what we do,” Richardson said. “It is important not only for patient health, but it surely’s also essential for the system.” Stopping people from fraudulently getting weight reduction drugs means there’s more supply for the individuals who need it, he said.
One other query is how a telehealth platform specifically for weight reduction drugs shall be used along with primary care.
Chandra said he worries a couple of potential for “fragmentation of care,” where persons are using the platform to get their weight reduction drugs, but still seeing their other in-person provider for other medications.
That poses a risk, he said, of potential drug-to-drug interactions, if providers are unaware of various medications a patient is taking.
“Most of the patients have no idea themselves what medications they’re on,” Chandra said. “Persistently they do not know what the negative effects or what the opposed effects could also be.”
Richardson said the Form Health doctors will review each patient’s medical records, including any existing medications that the patient is taking.
It stays to be seen whether Lilly’s supply of Zepbound will have the ability to maintain up with what’s expected to be extremely high demand. Semaglutide, the energetic ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, has been in short supply since March 2022 amid the drugs’ surging popularity.
Ricks said supply for Zepbound is not a priority for Lilly, no matter whether people get it from an area pharmacy or LillyDirect.
“That does not change the quantity of supply available, but it surely may make it easier for people to connect with a medication they need and want,” the Lilly CEO said.
Lilly also offers an analogous telehealth prescription and delivery service for a few of its migraine and diabetes drugs.
