Close-up of a hand holding a mobile phone displaying the Amazon pharmacy system, Lafayette, California, September 15, 2021.
Smith Collection | Gado | Getty Images
Eli Lilly he said on Wednesday Amazon The pharmacy will help send certain prescription drugs, including weight loss treatment Zepbound, to patients’ homes through the drug company’s new direct-to-consumer program.
Starting Wednesday, Amazon Pharmacy can deliver certain medicines by Eli Lilly prescribed for obesity, diabetes or migraine in patients who order them from a pharmacist 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 provide two-day deliveries for some patients.
The site, LillyDirect, connects people with an independent telehealth company that can prescribe certain medications if they’re eligible. The site also offers a home delivery option if the prescribed treatment is from Eli Lilly, clicking through to a third-party online pharmacy to fill prescriptions and send them directly to patients.
LillyDirect, which launched in January, aims to make Zepbound and other drugs easier for patients to access. It eliminates the need to go to a doctor for a prescription and, in some cases, a pharmacy to fill it.
The site is one of several ways the companies are moving to disrupt the complex system of dispensing, pricing and prescribing drugs in the U.S., in part as they face greater political pressure to lower consumer costs.
The new partnership with Amazon comes as the popularity of Zepbound and other weight loss drugs grows due to their ability to help patients lose significant weight over time. However, Eli Lilly has struggled to keep up with demand, and many of these drugs have experienced periodic shortages over the past year.
Eli Lilly has not said how many patients have used LillyDirect so far. But in an email on Tuesday, the company said it has seen “significant interest in the platform.” LillyDirect plans to expand the drugs it offers and the companies it works with in the future, Eli Lilly said.
Amazon Pharmacy offers free two-day delivery to patients with an Amazon Prime membership, which will also apply if they use LillyDirect.
“I think it’s a great 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 gets to 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 drugs to patients. However, 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 looking at how it can deliver drugs faster than two days.
“We actually don’t think that’s a high enough bar. We’re just getting started,” he said in an interview. “But that’s what I think makes us an attractive partner and partner for all kinds of people like Lilly, payers, providers who are looking for a different type of pharmacy.”
A Zepbound injection pen, Eli Lilly’s weight loss drug, is shown in New York on Dec. 11, 2023.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
Patients are not required to use LillyDirect’s telehealth services to access the home delivery option, according to the website.
Once a patient receives a prescription for a specific Eli Lilly drug, they can ask their healthcare professional to select LillyDirect as the pharmacy in their provider’s electronic health record system that will dispense the drug. The prescription will then be sent to LillyDirect, which will deliver the medication to the patient’s door either through Amazon Pharmacy or Truepill.
Eli Lilly said in an email that the majority of prescription drug deliveries will be shared between the two partners. However, the company noted that there will be some cases where one online pharmacy will be more suitable than another for delivery based on the patient’s “personal information,” including their insurance network.
Along with home delivery, Amazon Pharmacy will offer 24/7 access to clinical pharmacists for patients who have questions about their medications, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Vin Gupta.
These pharmacists are especially important for new patients taking weight loss injections like Zepbound. These drugs are known to have a handful of side effects, including nausea and vomiting.
“We can guide them through that journey and make them feel supported because a provider might not have time and might not be accessible for all of these questions,” Gupta said. “There is clinical excellence and clinical support that is not widely available in the pharmacy ecosystem that we provide.”
John Love, Vice President of Amazon Pharmacy, talks about drone healthcare delivery during Amazon’s “Delivering the Future” event at the BFI1 Fulfillment Center, Robotics Research and Development Hub in Sumner, Washington on October 18, 2023.
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images
This isn’t the first time Amazon has partnered with Eli Lilly. In August, Amazon partnered with Eli Lilly and other companies to add more than 15 coupons for insulin and diabetes medications at the online pharmacy.
Amazon shook up the retail pharmacy space when it acquired online pharmacy PillPack in 2018 and later launched Amazon Pharmacy in 2020. This was part of Amazon’s broader multi-year push into healthcare. The company also bought primary care provider One Medical for about $3.9 billion in 2022.
In February, Amazon confirmed to CNBC that it had cut hundreds of jobs at its pharmacy and One Medical divisions as CEO Andy Jassy aggressively cuts the company’s costs.
But Amazon is seeing “tremendous growth” from Amazon Pharmacy, One Medical and its virtual health clinic, Neil Lindsay, who heads Amazon Health Services, wrote in a memo to employees last month. Lindsay did not provide specific metrics.
Amazon Pharmacy has grown its presence in the broader healthcare industry over the past year.
A major California health insurer, Blue Shield of California, has announced it will no longer use the healthcare giant CVS as director of pharmacy benefits and will instead work with several other businesses, including Amazon Pharmacy.
–CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.