Close-up of a hand holding a cellphone displaying the Amazon Pharmacy system, Lafayette, California, September 15, 2021.
Smith Collection | Gado | Getty Images
Eli Lilly on Wednesday said Amazon Pharmacy will help send certain prescribed drugs, including the red-hot weight reduction treatment Zepbound, to patients’ homes through the drugmaker’s recent direct-to-consumer program.
Starting Wednesday, Amazon Pharmacy can deliver certain drugs from Eli Lilly which can be prescribed for obesity, diabetes or migraine to patients who organize them from the drugmaker’s direct sales website, in response to an email from Eli Lilly. It’s the second online pharmacy to partner with Eli Lilly’s platform, and might provide two-day deliveries to certain patients.
The web site, LillyDirect, connects individuals with an independent telehealth company that may prescribe certain drugs in the event that they are eligible. The positioning also offers a home-delivery option if the prescribed treatment is Eli Lilly’s, tapping a third-party online pharmacy to fill prescriptions and send them on to patients.
LillyDirect, which launched in January, goals to make Zepbound and other drugs easier for patients to access. It eliminates the necessity to go in person to the doctor for a prescription and, in some cases, to a pharmacy to fill it.
The positioning is one among several ways firms are moving to disrupt the complex system for distributing, pricing and prescribing drugs within the U.S., partly as they face more political pressure to chop consumer costs.
The brand new partnership with Amazon comes as the recognition of Zepbound and other weight reduction drugs soars due to their ability to assist patients lose significant weight over time. But Eli Lilly has struggled to satisfy demand, and plenty of of those drugs have faced intermittent shortages during the last yr.
Eli Lilly has not said what number of patients have used LillyDirect to date. But in an email on Tuesday, the corporate said it has seen “significant interest within the platform.” LillyDirect plans to expand the medicines it offers and the businesses it partners with in the long run, Eli Lilly said.
Amazon Pharmacy offers free two-day deliveries to patients with an Amazon Prime membership, which can even apply in the event that they use LillyDirect.
“I feel it’s a beautiful advantage,” Frank Cunningham, Eli Lilly’s senior vice chairman of worldwide value and access, said of Amazon’s two-day delivery option during an interview. “The goal is to have a implausible customer experience where the product gets to them as soon as possible.”
Cunningham didn’t disclose what number of days it typically takes for the location’s other pharmacy partner – digital health startup Truepill – to deliver medicines to patients. But he told CNBC that Eli Lilly expects Amazon Pharmacy and Truepill to have similar processing and shipping times.
Truepill CEO Paul Greenall told CNBC in a press release on Wednesday that the pharmacy has been providing overnight deliveries because the launch of LillyDirect.
Amazon Pharmacy Vice President John Love told CNBC that it’s examining how it will possibly deliver drugs faster than two days.
“We actually don’t think that is a high enough bar. We’re still getting began,” he said in an interview. “But that is what I feel makes us a pretty partner and collaborator for all types of folks like Lilly, payers, providers who’re on the lookout for a distinct form of pharmacy.”
An injection pen of Zepbound, Eli Lilly’s weight reduction drug, is displayed in Latest York City on Dec. 11, 2023.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
Patients aren’t required to make use of LillyDirect’s telehealth services to access the house delivery option, in response to the location.
Once a patient receives a prescription for a certain Eli Lilly drug, they will ask their health-care skilled to pick LillyDirect because the pharmacy inside their provider’s electronic health records system that can dispense the medication. The prescription will then be routed to LillyDirect, which is able to deliver the drug to the patient’s door either through Amazon Pharmacy or Truepill.
Eli Lilly in an email said the vast majority of prescription drug deliveries shall be split between the 2 partners. But the corporate noted that there shall be some instances where one online pharmacy shall be more appropriate than the opposite for a delivery based on the patient’s “individual details,” including their insurance network.
Together with home delivery, Amazon Pharmacy will offer 24/7 access to clinical pharmacists for patients who’ve questions on the medications they receive, chief medical officer Dr. Vin Gupta told CNBC.
Those pharmacists are especially vital for brand spanking new patients on weight reduction injections resembling Zepbound. Those drugs are known to have a handful of unintended effects, including nausea and vomiting.
“We are able to walk them through that journey and make them feel like they’ve support because a provider may not have time and will not be accessible for all of those questions,” Gupta said. “There may be clinical excellence and clinical support that isn’t widely available within the pharmacy ecosystem that we’re providing.”
Similarly, Truepill offers patients 24/7 access to its own pharmacists for clinical support, Greenall said in a press release.
“Our team of clinical pharmacists has deep experience and expertise with diabetes and weight reduction medications based on years of managing programs in these categories across clients,” he said.
John Love, Vice President of Amazon Pharmacy, talks about healthcare delivery by drone during Amazon’s “Delivering the Future” event at the corporate’s BFI1 Success Center, Robotics Research and Development Hub in Sumner, Washington on October 18, 2023.
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images
This is not the primary time Amazon has collaborated with Eli Lilly. In August, Amazon worked with Eli Lilly and other firms so as to add greater than 15 coupons for insulin and diabetes medicine to the net pharmacy.
Amazon shook up the retail drug store space when it acquired online pharmacy PillPack in 2018 and later rolled out Amazon Pharmacy in 2020. That was a part of Amazon’s broader multi-year push into health care. The corporate also bought primary care provider One Medical for roughly $3.9 billion in 2022.
In February, Amazon confirmed to CNBC that it had eliminated lots of of jobs in its pharmacy and One Medical divisions as CEO Andy Jassy aggressively cuts costs at the corporate.
But Amazon is seeing “tremendous growth” from Amazon Pharmacy, One Medical and its virtual health clinic, Neil Lindsay, who leads Amazon Health Services, wrote in a memo to employees last month. Lindsay didn’t provide specific metrics.
Amazon Pharmacy has increased its presence within the broader health-care industry during the last yr.
A significant California health insurer, Blue Shield of California, announced it would not use health-care giant CVS as its pharmacy advantages manager and as an alternative will partner with several other businesses, including Amazon Pharmacy.
–CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.