Beth Snyder Bulik
Senior Editor
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Eli Lilly has struck a deal with Amazon Pharmacy to deliver its obesity, diabetes and migraine medicines directly to patients. Amazon will work through Lilly’s recently launched LillyDirect telehealth platform.
It’s the first time Amazon’s pharmacy business has worked directly with a drugmaker, establishing a new kind of direct relationship between the maker of a medication and the tech and retail giant. The new relationship differs from how medications are traditionally prescribed and then dispensed through a retail pharmacy, potentially disrupting elements of those businesses and creating a big business for Amazon Pharmacy.
Lilly surprised the industry in January by launching LillyDirect to connect patients directly to physicians through telehealth, in-person and pharmacy services in three therapy areas — obesity, diabetes and migraine.
Frank Cunningham
The Amazon deal is not an exclusive agreement, said Frank Cunningham, Lilly group VP of global value and access, and Lilly is continuing to evaluate other telehealth, pharmacy and service provider partners for LillyDirect.
Lilly chose Amazon Pharmacy for several reasons, he said, including its “experience in developing tech-enabled solutions. We liked their commitment to patient safety, simplifying the pharmacy experience and great customer service.”
Neither Lilly nor Amazon is promising the popular GLP-1 drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound now available through LillyDirect won’t face shortages. When asked about shortages, Cunningham acknowledged challenges across the supply chain in both availability and reimbursement, but said LillyDirect launched “to provide a convenient option for consumers and so far, so good.”
Amazon’s customer service page about GLP-1s says it is now accepting prescriptions for Mounjaro and Zepbound on Amazon Pharmacy, but “due to ongoing challenges in the marketplace” for Wegovy and Ozempic, it is prioritizing existing customers and those patients with insurance plans where Amazon Pharmacy is the exclusive online pharmacy provider.
Lilly began LillyDirect with Form Health as a telehealth provider, and keeps Truepill as a dispensing partner, making Amazon Pharmacy its second. Lilly also uses Eversana pharmacy services for benefits verification, manufacturer savings and prescription routing.
Along with adding partners, Lilly is also considering additional treatments to add to the service. Cunningham described the success of LillyDirect as a “better than expected” launch.
In a Tuesday discussion at the Economic Club of New York, Lilly CEO David Ricks talked about the “surprising success” of LillyDirect.
“Do people use it? Yes, at scale. In fact, we’re having trouble keeping up,” he said.
He pointed out that LillyDirect’s direct-to-consumer platform can help take some of the “chaos” out of US healthcare, adding, “We can communicate ‘OK, we don’t have it today, but in two weeks time, your shipment will arrive.’ CVS and Walmart can’t do that.”
— Andrew Dunn contributed reporting.
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Beth Snyder Bulik
Senior Editor
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