Eli Lilly and Company has launched a new website that gives U.S. patients direct access to many of its medications. The news comes as the use of obesity medications, which can also help control diabetes symptoms, continue to gain momentum throughout the United States. This trend has included tirzepatide, which Lilly sells under the name Zepbound and Mounjaro, and semaglutide, which Novo Nordisk sells under the names Wegovy and Ozempic.
Lilly describes LillyDirect as a “digital healthcare experience” that allows patients to order select medications, including tirzepatide/Zepbound, with a confirmed prescription from a doctor. The drugs will be available for patients with and without insurance.
LillyDirect includes a digital pharmacy that offers home delivery, educational materials, access to “independent telehealth providers” and a resource for finding local healthcare providers.
There will also be “affordability solutions and savings card opportunities” for select patients, but Lilly did not provide many specific details about these options in its initial announcement.
“A complex U.S. healthcare system adds to the burdens patients face when managing a chronic disease. With LillyDirect, our goal is to relieve some of those burdens by simplifying the patient experience to help improve outcomes,” David A. Ricks, Lilly’s chair and CEO, said in a prepared statement. “LillyDirect offers more choices in how and where people access healthcare, including a convenient home delivery option to fill Lilly medicines they have been prescribed.”
“We know that people have come to depend on the efficiency and convenience of digital solutions to meet a variety of their everyday needs—healthcare being one of them,” added Frank Cunningham, Lilly’s group vice president of global value and access. “We launched LillyDirect with the hope that it will offer patients an innovative end-to-end experience to manage their health and access their medicines, so they can get back to living their lives.”
This new online marketplace will offer treatment options for obesity, diabetes and migraines at first; additional medications are expected to be added in the future.
The continued rise in popularity and influence of obesity drugs
The increased utilization of drugs such as semaglutide and tirzepatide was arguably the biggest story in healthcare in 2023. Science, a popular journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, named the ongoing trend its 2023 Breakthrough of the Year.
“These new therapies are reshaping not only how obesity is treated, but how it’s understood—as a chronic illness with roots in biology, not a simple failure of willpower,” author Jennifer Couzin-Frankel said at the time. “And that may have as much impact as any drug.”
The editorial staff of the American Heart Association seems to agree, including this trend as one of 2023’s “top advances in cardiovascular research.”
Michael has more than 16 years of experience as a professional writer and editor. He has written at length about cardiology, radiology, artificial intelligence and other key healthcare topics.