Close-up of a hand holding a cell phone showing the Amazon Pharmacy system, Lafayette, California, September 15, 2021.
Smith Collection | Gado | fake images
Eli Lilly Wednesday said Amazon Drug shop will help ship certain prescription medications, including the hot weight-loss treatment Zepbound, to patients' homes through the drugmaker's new direct-to-consumer program.
Starting Wednesday, Amazon Pharmacy can deliver certain Eli Lilly medications that are prescribed for obesity, diabetes or migraine to patients who order them on the drugmaker's direct sales website, according to an email from Eli Lilly. It is the second online pharmacy to partner with Eli Lilly's platform and can offer two-day delivery to certain patients.
The LillyDirect website connects people with an independent telehealth company that can prescribe certain medications if they are eligible. The site also offers a home delivery option if the prescribed treatment is Eli Lilly, using a third-party online pharmacy to fill prescriptions and ship them directly to patients.
LillyDirect, which launched in January, aims to make it easier for patients to access Zepbound and other medications. It eliminates the need to go to the doctor for a prescription and, in some cases, to a pharmacy to fill it.
The site is one of several ways companies are moving to disrupt the complex system of drug distribution, pricing and prescribing in the United States, in part because they face increased political pressure to reduce costs for consumers.
The new partnership with Amazon comes as the popularity of Zepbound and other weight loss medications is skyrocketing due to their ability to help patients lose significant weight over time. But Eli Lilly has struggled to meet demand, and many of those drugs have faced intermittent shortages over the past year.
Eli Lilly has not said how many patients have used LillyDirect so far. But in an email sent Tuesday, the company said it had seen “significant interest in the platform.” LillyDirect plans to expand the drugs it offers and the companies it partners with in the future, Eli Lilly said.
Amazon Pharmacy offers free two-day delivery to patients with Amazon Prime membership, which will also apply if they use LillyDirect.
“I think it's a wonderful advantage,” Frank Cunningham, Eli Lilly's senior vice president of global value and access, said of Amazon's two-day delivery option during an interview. “The goal is to have a fantastic customer experience where the product reaches them as quickly as possible.”
Cunningham did not disclose how many days it typically takes the site's other pharmacy partner, digital health startup Truepill, to deliver medications to patients. But he told CNBC that Eli Lilly expects Amazon Pharmacy and Truepill to have similar processing and shipping times.
Amazon Pharmacy Vice President John Love told CNBC that it is examining how it can deliver medications in less than two days.
“We actually don't think it's a high enough bar. We're still getting started,” he said in an interview. “But this is what I think makes us an attractive partner and collaborator for all kinds of people like Lilly, payers and providers who are looking for a different type of pharmacy.”
An injectable pen of Zepbound, Eli Lilly's weight loss drug, is on display in New York City on December 11, 2023.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
According to the site, patients are not required to use LillyDirect telehealth services to access the home delivery option.
Once a patient receives a prescription for a certain medication from Eli Lilly, they can ask their healthcare professional to select LillyDirect as the pharmacy within their provider's electronic health records system that will dispense the medication. The prescription will then be sent to LillyDirect, which will deliver the medication to the patient's doorstep via Amazon Pharmacy or Truepill.
Eli Lilly said in an email that most prescription drug deliveries will be split between the two partners. But the company noted that there will be some cases where one online pharmacy will be more appropriate than another for a delivery based on the patient's “individual details,” including their insurance network.
In addition to home delivery, Amazon Pharmacy will offer 24/7 access to clinical pharmacists for patients who have questions about the medications they receive, chief medical officer Dr. Vin Gupta told CNBC. .
Those pharmacists are especially important for new patients receiving weight loss injections like Zepbound. These medications are known to have several side effects, such as nausea and vomiting.
“We can guide them through that journey and make them feel like they have support because a provider may not have the time and may not be accessible for all of those questions,” Gupta said. “There is clinical excellence and clinical support that is not widely available in the pharmaceutical ecosystem that we provide.”
John Love, vice president of Amazon Pharmacy, speaks about delivering healthcare using drones during Amazon's “Delivering the Future” event at the company's BFI1 Fulfillment Center, a robotics research and development center in Sumner, Washington, on the 18th. October 2023.
Jason Redmond | AFP | fake images
This is not the first time Amazon has collaborated with Eli Lilly. In August, Amazon worked with Eli Lilly and other companies to add more than 15 coupons for insulin and diabetes medications to the online pharmacy.
Amazon revolutionized the retail pharmacy space when it acquired online pharmacy PillPack in 2018 and then launched Amazon Pharmacy in 2020. That was part of Amazon's broader multi-year push into healthcare. The company also purchased primary care provider One Medical for approximately $3.9 billion in 2022.
In February, Amazon confirmed to CNBC that it had cut hundreds of jobs in its pharmacy and One Medical divisions as CEO Andy Jassy aggressively cut the company's costs.
But Amazon is seeing “tremendous growth” from Amazon Pharmacy, One Medical and its virtual health clinic, Neil Lindsay, who runs Amazon Health Services, wrote in a memo to employees last month. Lindsay did not provide specific metrics.
Amazon Pharmacy has increased its presence in the broader healthcare industry over the past year.
A major California health insurer, Blue Shield of California, announced it will no longer use the healthcare giant. CVS as a pharmacy benefit manager and will instead partner with several other companies, including Amazon Pharmacy.
–CNBC's Annie Palmer contributed to this report.
