Eli Lilly partners with Amazon to deliver weight loss drug Zepbound
Amazon Pharmacy, which will fill Zepbound prescriptions ordered through LillyDirect, will also offer 24/7 access to clinical pharmacists for patients who have questions about the medications they receive.
Consumers now can order the popular weight-loss drug Zepbound and certain other Eli Lilly pharmaceuticals from Amazon Pharmacy. It becomes the second online pharmacy to partner with LillyDirect and can provide two-day deliveries to some patients.
LillyDirect, which launched in January, connects people with an independent telehealth company that can prescribe certain drugs if they are eligible. The site also offers a home-delivery option if the prescribed treatment is an Eli Lilly product, using a third-party online pharmacy to fill prescriptions and send them directly to patients.
“I think it’s a wonderful advantage,” Frank Cunningham, Eli Lilly’s senior vice president of global value and access, told CNBC. “The goal is to have a fantastic customer experience where the product gets to them as soon as possible.”
The new partnership with Amazon comes as Zepbound and other GLP-1 weight loss drugs are in high demand because of their ability to help patients lose significant weight over time. However, Eli Lilly and other drugmakers have struggled to meet demand, and many of those drugs have faced intermittent shortages over the last year.
Amazon Pharmacy will now handle some of the home delivery of anti-obesity therapy Zepbound and other Eli Lilly drugs that are ordered through the drugmaker’s new direct-to-consumer service.
Amazon Pharmacy offers free two-day deliveries to patients with an Amazon Prime membership, which also will apply if they use LillyDirect. Cunningham did not disclose how many days it typically takes for the site’s other pharmacy partner, digital health startup Truepill, to deliver medicines to patients. John Love, vice president of Amazon Pharmacy, said his company is examining how it can deliver drugs even faster.
“We actually don’t think that’s a high enough bar,” he said. “We’re still getting started. 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.”
Related: Eli Lilly’s big move: Drugmaker now offering obesity drug Zepbound direct to consumers
Eli Lilly said the majority of prescription drug deliveries will be divided between the two partners, although there will be some instances where one online pharmacy will be more appropriate than the other for a delivery based on the patient’s individual details, such as their insurance network.
Along with home delivery, Amazon Pharmacy will offer 24/7 access to clinical pharmacists for patients who have questions about the medications they receive.
“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,” Chief Medical Officer Dr. Vin Gupta said. “There is clinical excellence and clinical support that is not widely available in the pharmacy ecosystem that we’re providing.”