Drugmaker Eli Lilly announced on Thursday a latest website that may allow patients to get a weight loss drug prescription through a telehealth provider — a move, the corporate says, that may improve access to the extremely popular and effective drugs, including its recently approved drug, Zepbound.
The brand new website, called LillyDirect, joins a growing list of platforms like Weight Watchers and Ro offering weight loss drugs through telehealth, but is the primary of its kind from a pharmaceutical company.
It comes lower than two months after the Food and Drug Administration approved Lilly’s weight loss drug Zepbound. The drug is the newest entrant into the sector of the powerful — and pricy — class of medicines called GLP-1 agonists, which incorporates Lilly’s Mounjaro in addition to Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy.
“We’re used to buying consumer goods directly from manufacturers on a regular basis on online web sites,” said Lilly CEO David Ricks. “It really hasn’t been an option that is been provided before” for prescription drugs.
Ricks said the brand new platform will make it easier for patients to access the drugs, cutting out the necessity to go to the doctor to get a prescription after which to a pharmacy to fill it. Patients who’re prescribed Zepbound can be eligible for Lilly’s at-home prescription delivery service.
There won’t be price discounts for any of the medications through the website, nevertheless, which, at an inventory price of greater than $1,000 for a month’s supply and often not covered by insurance, puts them out of reach for many Americans. Patients will still need to meet the factors for the weight loss drugs, that are meant for long-term use, not quick weight loss.
Some experts, nevertheless, expressed concerns concerning the platform and raised questions on Lilly’s financial motives.
“What fuels my skepticism is that the stakes are so high,” said Arthur Caplan, the top of the division of medical ethics at NYU Langone Medical Center in Recent York City.
Other corporations also offer weight loss prescriptions through telemedicine, but not a drug company with its own weight loss drug, Caplan said.
“There’s a lot money that is going to move with these injectables,” he said. “That creates no less than the looks of conflict of interest.”
Lilly itself is not providing the telehealth services. As a substitute, LillyDirect will connect patients with the telehealth provider Form Health, whose obesity medicine doctors will work with patients to determine whether a prescription is suitable.
Neither Form Health nor its physicians will receive financial compensation for prescribing Lilly’s drug, Ricks said.
Evan Richardson, the CEO of Form Health, said that patients who’re prescribed a weight loss drug will meet over video with a physician on an ongoing basis, typically once a month.
The doctors will work independently and can have the option to prescribe any FDA-approved weight loss drug — they will not be required to prescribe Lilly’s Zepbound.
But only those prescribed Zepbound can be eligible for Lilly’s at-home prescription delivery service, Ricks said.
Telehealth for weight loss drugs
With dozens of telehealth services already offering prescriptions, LillyDirect faces loads of competition. It is not clear what percentage of patients get their weight loss drugs or any medication through telehealth, however the platforms may be vital for individuals who live too distant from a physician.
“These are populations which are underserved minorities who reside in rural areas based away from urban areas,” said Dr. Saurabh Chandra, the chief telehealth officer on the Center for Telehealth on the University of Mississippi Medical Center, who has no ties to either Lilly or Form Health. “Roughly 18% to 20% of the population reside in rural areas.”
On top of that, there’s a shortage of primary care physicians, he said. “You mix the 2, now you will have a scarcity of access to health look after these populations.”
Still, not all experts are convinced that a telehealth provider backed by a significant pharmaceutical company is one of the best approach.
“It looks like blurring the lines,” said Dr. Shauna Levy, a specialist in obesity medicine and the medical director of the Tulane Bariatric Center in Recent Orleans. Levy has no ties to Lilly or Form Health.
Lilly said the web platform is just intended for individuals who currently meet the factors for a weight loss drug within the U.S.: Individuals with a BMI of no less than 30 or a BMI of no less than 27 with no less than one weight-related medical condition.
Form Health’s physicians could have full discretion over who they prescribe the medications to, or if a weight loss drug is the precise fit for a patient. The drugs can include unwanted effects including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Richardson, the Form Health CEO, said the telehealth company has multiple layers of protection to make sure that physicians are only serving patients who meet the factors for weight loss drugs. That features verifying the patient’s medical information and ensuring their driver’s license aligns with their height and appearance. The corporate may also send a scale to the patient’s home.
Ensuring the precise patients are getting the medications is “a very important aspect of what we do,” Richardson said. “It is vital not only for patient health, but it surely’s also essential for the system.” Stopping people from fraudulently getting weight loss drugs means there’s more supply for the individuals who need it, he said.
One other query is how a telehealth platform specifically for weight loss drugs can be used as well as to primary care.
Chandra said he worries a few potential for “fragmentation of care,” where persons are using the platform to get their weight loss drugs, but still seeing their other in-person provider for other medications.
That poses a risk, he said, of potential drug-to-drug interactions, if providers are unaware of various medications a patient is taking.
“Lots of the patients have no idea themselves what medications they’re on,” Chandra said. “Repeatedly they do not know what the unwanted effects or what the opposed effects could also be.”
Richardson said the Form Health doctors will review each patient’s medical records, including any existing medications that the patient is taking.
It stays to be seen whether Lilly’s supply of Zepbound will have the option to sustain with what’s expected to be extremely high demand. Semaglutide, the energetic ingredient in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, has been in short supply since March 2022 amid the drugs’ surging popularity.
Ricks said supply for Zepbound is not a priority for Lilly, no matter whether people get it from an area pharmacy or LillyDirect.
“That does not change the quantity of supply available, but it surely may make it easier for people to connect to a drugs they need and want,” the Lilly CEO said.
Lilly also offers an identical telehealth prescription and delivery service for a few of its migraine and diabetes drugs.