Amgen and different pharmaceutical producers begin DTC packages

The Amgen main seat in Thousand Oaks, California.

Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A version of this article first appeared in the Healthy Returns newsletter from CNBC, which brings the latest health news directly into their inbox. Subscribe here to get future expenses.

Pharmaceutical manufacturers are increasingly using telegesundheit platforms to sell their medication directly to patients – and that is exactly what President Donald Trump wants.

Amgen Is the youngest company that penetrates the direct-to-consumer area and announced on Monday that it will offer its cholesterol-lowering drug Repatha at a cash price that is 60 % below the current list price before insurance and discounts. This is followed by similar steps from other pharmaceutical manufacturers who want to simplify the access of the Americans to their pharmaceuticals, as well as the political pressure of the Trump government to lower US medicinal products prices.

In July, Trump sent letters to 17 pharmaceutical manufacturers in which he asked them to take concrete measures to reduce the costs for patients, including the introduction of direct sales models for their medicines to the consumer. The companies had to react until September 29th. This was part of his efforts to revive a controversial plan called “Most Privacy Policy”, which aims to bind the prices of some medication in the USA to the significantly lower abroad.

As part of this plan, Trump said his government would start a website called Trumprx.gov, on which brand medication is offered for direct online purchase with a discount. For example, as part of a new agreement with Trump, Pfizer said that there would be a large part of its basic supply treatments on this website and certain special brand medication with discounts of an average of 50 % and up to 85 %.

The direct-to-consumer programs of the pharmaceutical industry usually offer a greatly reduced cash price and free shipping for people who buy directly from companies with cash instead of redeeming their recipes in inpatient pharmacies and paying them with their health insurance card. By introducing a direct sales model to the consumer, pharmaceutical manufacturers can handle middlemen such as pharmacy beefit managers and possibly achieve part of the income in billions of bills that flow through these middlemen every year.

Here you will find your guide to the current direct-to-consumer models in the industry.

• Amgen – The company’s new program, Amgennow, starts with Repatha. The cash price of the program of $ 239 per month is almost 60 % below the current list price of Repatha and is open to all patients, even those who are not insured or have health insurance plans with high deductible or prefer to pay with cash. Amgen said that its new cash price for Repatha corresponds to the lowest that it currently receives in an economically developed country.
• Eli Lilly – In January 2024, Eli Lilly started her own online pharmacy for direct sales with Lillydirect to facilitate patients access to his medication Zepbound for weight loss. On the website, authorized patients can receive a prescription via a telemedicine provider and offer delivery home. Lillydirect recently started offering Zepbound in single dose vials that cost half or even less than the usual monthly list price of $ 1,000. The pharmacy also sells medication for diabetes, Alzheimer’s and migraines directly to patients.
• Novo Nordisk -The company announced in March that it will offer its weight loss medication for less than half of the usual monthly price via a new online pharmacy for direct customers, Novocare. The cash payment offer is available to millions of patients without insurance coverage for blockbuster injection. Novo Nordisk also started in August to offer his own pharmacy and a partnership with the telemedicine company Goodrx to authorized patients at this price-$ 499 $ 499 per month.
• Pfizer – In August 2024, the company started a direct-to-consumer service called Pfizerforall, which helps patients agree on telegesundheit services, fill their recipes and access austerity programs for the company’s migraine, covid-19 and flu medics.
• Astrazeneca – In September, the company announced the introduction of AstraZeneca Direct, which will sell its Farxiga diabetes medication and two asthmic treatments directly to bar with a discount of up to 70 % to their list prices. People with recipes for these medication can order them on the platform from October 1st.
• Novartis – The company announced in September that it will introduce a direct-to-consumer platform on November 1, which enables it to pay the medication Cosentyx for its immunoological concept and to acquire it on the list price with a discount of 55 %. Due to the discount, the list price of the drug drops from less than $ 8,000 per month to just over $ 3,500. The company said Cosentyx would serve as a test option for the sales model. If it is successful, the company will offer a direct sales option for additional medication and examine a similar approach for large employers, “as another way to improve access and affordability”.
• Bristol Myers Squibb – In July, the pharmaceutical manufacturer and his partner Pfizer announced the introduction of a direct-am patient online program, Eliquis 360 Support, which began to sell the blockbuster blood thinner with a discount of 43 % in cash in September. Bristol Myers Squibb expanded its direct offer to consumers in September and announced that the BMS Patient Connect platform will offer the plaque psoriasis medication SOTYKTU with a discount of more than 80 % on the list price from January.
• Phra -The US Pharma Lobby Group announced that it will start a new website, Americasmedicines.com next January to help patients buy prescription drugs directly from the manufacturer.

We assume that the pharmaceutical industry will conclude further agreements on the pricing of medication with Trump, which could also include new direct-to-consumer models for medication. So stay looking forward to our reporting.

Feel free to send tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Annika at a new email address: annika.constantino@versantmedia.com.

The latest in the healthcare system: could GLP-1 to reduce weight Dr. Oz ‘the next pharmaceutical price initiative?

The administrator of the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Dr. Mehmet OZ, has an ambitious list of goals at the authority to contribute to improving the country’s health system. I spoke to him on Monday during a comprehensive discussion at the Aspen Institute about his greatest priorities.

With regard to the registration for the Affordable Care Act, he expressed the hope that the congress will reach an agreement on the end of the ongoing government arrest and to extend the ACA tax credits that should expire at the end of the year. Since the shopping period for open enrollment at ACA begins on October 15, the clock ticks.

With regard to Medicaid, OZ said that CMS is making progress to help states to use technology to implement new rules to review work requirements that were issued by the congress at the beginning of the year. He said the agency was in conversations with technology startups, which he called “insurgents” to connect them to states and thus to rationalize the introduction.

“The goal would be to give the states several options,” said Oz. “Choose it that you think it best suits you, your system and your current platform.”

One of his greatest goals is to make medication more affordable for Americans, he said.

“I think until the president’s term of office is over – and I have taken over this obligation to him – 95 % of all medications in America will be available at prices that we can be proud of,” he said.

He pointed out that Trumprx, President Donald Trump’s most popular nationwide pricing initiative for medicines, and the direct sales platform Trumprx had a large part in it. He also advocated the price negotiations for Medicare drugs as part of the inflation reduction act as another part of the puzzle and said that his team “negotiated aggressively” during the current round of negotiations.

Then the discussion became really interesting when I asked him what he thought that Medicare paid for expensive GLP-1 medication for weight loss.

He said as a doctor he was fascinated by what the medication can do. But then he rejected insurance cover. “That is the only question I have to ask,” he replied, adding: “We are in the middle of a lot of action, but you will hear more about it very soon.”

During Trump’s first term in office, the government pushed pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacy managers to reduce the costs to $ 35 per month. This is now the rule at Medicare.

Ozempic from Novo Nordisk is one of the medication that are now the subject of price negotiations for 2027. One cannot avoid wondering whether OZ is trying to use this reduced Medicare Prize in the entire health system.

Listen to this part of the discussion here.

You can send tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Bertha at Bertha.coombs@versantmedia.com at any time.