Background

In January, Eli Lilly launched LillyDirect, a telehealth platform that allows patients to access prescriptions for conditions like obesity, migraines, and diabetes. The service also offers delivery of certain prescriptions, including the company's weight-loss drug Zepbound, some insulin products for diabetes, and a migraine drug.

According to Eli Lilly CEO David Ricks, LillyDirect will make it easier for patients to access drugs, as it removes the need to go to a doctor to get a prescription and a pharmacy to fill it.

"We've noticed that patients often struggle to manage their disease not because of the medicine itself but because the pathway to getting the medicine can be really challenging," Ricks said. "Sometimes that's the pharmacy experience where products are out of stock or markups in pricing are confusing."

Although Eli Lilly has not reported how many patients have used LillyDirect so far, the company said that it has seen "significant interest in the platform" and that it plans to expand the medications it offers in the future.

Eli Lilly partners with Amazon Pharmacy on prescription deliveries

Amazon Pharmacy is now the second company to partner with Eli Lilly on prescription delivery services, with Truepill being the first.

Currently, Amazon Pharmacy offers free two-day deliveries for patients who have an Amazon Prime membership, and this will also apply to those who use LillyDirect.

Amazon's two-day delivery option is "a wonderful advantage," said Frank Cunningham, Eli Lilly SVP of global value and access. "The goal is to have a fantastic customer experience where the product gets to them as soon as possible."

John Love, Amazon Pharmacy VP, noted that the company is examining how to deliver prescription drugs faster than two days. "We actually don't think that's a high enough bar. We're still getting started," he said. "But this is what I think makes us an attractive partner and collaborator for all sorts of folks like Lilly, payers, providers who are looking for a different type of pharmacy."

Aside from delivery services, Amazon Pharmacy will also offer patients 24/7 access to clinical pharmacists if they have any questions about their medications. According to CNBC, this service could be especially important for patients taking weight-loss injections, like Zepbound, for the first time since known side effects include nausea and vomiting.

"We can walk them through that journey and make them feel like they have support because a provider may not have time and may not be accessible for all of those questions," said Amazon Pharmacy CMO Vin Gupta. "There is clinical excellence and clinical support that is not widely available in the pharmacy ecosystem that we're providing."

Although LillyDirect currently only offers prescriptions through delivery, Cunningham said the company is considering partnering with a retail pharmacy to allow pick-up option for prescriptions. So far, Walgreens has expressed interest in a potential partnership, with CEO Tim Wentworth saying that the company could be "a very natural potential partner for someone like Lilly." (Constantino, CNBC, 3/13; Landi, Fierce Healthcare, 3/13; Wingrove, Reuters, 3/13)

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