Amgen and other drugmakers launch DTC programs

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Drug makers are increasingly using telehealth platforms to sell their drugs directly to patients, and it's exactly what President Donald Trump wants.

amgen is the latest company to foray into the direct-to-consumer space, announcing Monday that it will offer its cholesterol-lowering drug Repatha at a cash price 60% below its current list price before insurance and rebates. This follows similar moves by other drugmakers to simplify how Americans get their medications and political pressure from the Trump administration to lower drug prices in the United States.

In July, Trump sent letters to 17 drugmakers urging them to take specific steps to reduce costs for patients, including launching direct-to-consumer sales models for their drugs. The companies had to respond before September 29. It was part of his effort to revive a controversial plan called the “most favored nation” policy, which aims to tie the prices of some drugs in the United States to significantly lower ones abroad.

As part of that plan, Trump said his administration will launch a website called TrumpRx.gov, which will have brand-name drugs available for direct purchase at a discount online. For example, under a new agreement with Trump, Pfizer said it will offer a large portion of its primary care treatments and certain specialty brand drugs on that site with discounts of 50% on average and up to 85%.

The pharmaceutical industry's direct-to-consumer programs typically offer deeply discounted cash pricing, along with free shipping, to people who buy directly from companies with cash, rather than filling their prescriptions at traditional pharmacies and paying with their health insurance cards. By adopting a direct-to-consumer sales model, drug makers can avoid middlemen like pharmacy benefit managers and potentially capture some of the billions of dollars in revenue that flow through those middlemen each year.

Here's your guide to the industry's current direct-to-consumer sales models.

• amgen – The company's new program, AmgenNow, begins with Repatha. The program's cash price of $239 per month is nearly 60% below Repatha's current list price and is open to all patients, including those who are uninsured or have high-deductible health plans or prefer to pay cash. Amgen said its new spot price for Repatha matches the lowest it now receives in any economically developed country.
• Eli Lilly – In January 2024, Eli Lilly launched its own direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, LillyDirect, to help patients access its weight loss drug Zepbound. The website allows eligible patients to obtain a prescription through a telehealth provider and can provide home delivery. More recently, LillyDirect also began offering Zepbound in single-dose vials that cost half or even less than its usual monthly list price of $1,000. The pharmacy also sells medications for diabetes, Alzheimer's and migraine, among other conditions, directly to patients.
• Nordisk – The company said in March that it will offer its weight-loss drug Wegovy for less than half its usual price per month through a new direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, NovoCare. The cash payment offer is available to millions of patients without insurance coverage for the successful injection. In August, Novo Nordisk also began offering its diabetes drug Ozempic at that price ($499 a month) to eligible cash-paying patients through its own pharmacy and a partnership with telehealth company GoodRx.
• Pfizer – In August 2024, the company launched a direct-to-consumer service called PfizerForAll, which helps patients schedule telehealth services, fill their prescriptions, and access savings programs for the company's migraine, Covid-19, and flu medications.
• AstraZeneca – In September, the company announced the launch of AstraZeneca Direct, which will directly sell its diabetes drug, Farxiga, and two asthma treatments to cash-paying U.S. patients at a discount of up to 70% off their list prices. People with prescriptions for these medications will be able to request them from the platform starting October 1.
• Novartis – In September, the company said it will launch a direct-to-consumer platform on Nov. 1, allowing cash-paying patients prescribed its immune drug Cosentyx to purchase it at a 55% discount off the list price. The discount reduces the drug's list price to just over $3,500 from less than $8,000 per month. The company said Cosentyx will serve as a way to test the sales model. If successful, the company will offer a direct-to-consumer option for additional medications and explore a similar approach for large employers “as another way to increase access and affordability.”
• Bristol-Myers Squibb – The drugmaker and its partner, Pfizer, announced in July the launch of an online direct-to-patient program, Eliquis 360 Support, which began selling the blockbuster blood thinner at a 43% discount to cash-paying patients in September. Bristol Myers Squibb expanded its direct-to-consumer offerings in September, announcing that the BMS Patient Connect platform will offer plaque psoriasis drug Sotyktu at a more than 80% discount off the list price to eligible cash-paying patients in the U.S. starting in January.
• PhRMA – The American pharmaceutical lobby group said it would launch a new website, AmericasMedicines.com, next January to help patients buy prescription drugs directly from manufacturers.

We expect the pharmaceutical industry to reach more deals with Trump on drug pricing, which could include new direct-to-consumer drug models, so stay tuned for our coverage.

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and facts to Annika at a new email: [email protected].

Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, has an ambitious list of goals at the agency to help improve the nation's health system. I spoke with him about his top priorities during a wide-ranging discussion at the Aspen Institute on Monday.

Regarding Affordable Care Act enrollment, he expressed hope that Congress will reach a deal to end the current government shutdown and extend ACA tax credits that are set to expire at the end of the year. With the ACA open enrollment shopping period scheduled to begin on October 15, the clock is ticking.

On Medicaid, Oz said CMS is moving forward to help states leverage technology to implement new work requirement verification rules enacted by Congress earlier this year. He said the agency has been in talks with tech startups he called “insurgents” to connect them with states to expedite launch.

“The goal would be to give states several options,” Oz said. “Choose what you think works best for you, your system, and the current platform you have.”

One of his biggest goals is to make medicines more affordable for Americans, he said.

“I believe that when the president's term ends (and I made this commitment to him) 95% of all medicines in the United States will have prices that we can be proud of,” he said.

He touted President Donald Trump's Most Favored Nation drug pricing effort and the TrumpRx direct sales platform as a big part of that. He also endorsed negotiations on Medicare drug prices under the Inflation Reduction Act as another piece of the puzzle, saying his team has been “negotiating aggressively” during the current round of talks.

Then the discussion got really interesting when I asked him what he thought about Medicare paying for expensive GLP-1 weight loss drugs.

He said that as a doctor, he is intrigued by what medications can do. But then he objected about the insurance coverage. “That's the only question I'm going to have to answer,” he responded, adding that “we're in the middle of a lot of action, but you'll hear more about it very soon.”

During Trump's first term, the administration pressured drug makers and pharmacy benefit managers to reduce costs to $35 a month. That's now the rule in Medicare.

Novo Nordisk's Ozempic is among the drugs subject to price negotiations by 2027. You can't help but wonder if Oz is looking to take advantage of that Medicare discounted price across the healthcare system.

Listen to that part of the discussion here.

Please feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas or information to Bertha at [email protected].