Amgen, other drugmakers launch DTC programs

A version of this article first appeared in CNBC’s Healthy Returns newsletter, which brings the latest health-care news straight to your inbox. Subscribe here to receive future editions.

Drugmakers are increasingly using telehealth platforms to sell their medicines directly to patients – and it’s exactly what President Donald Trump wants. 

Amgen is the latest company to wade into the direct-to-consumer space, announcing on Monday that it will offer its cholesterol-lowering drug Repatha at a cash price 60% below its current list price before insurance and rebates. It follows similar moves by other drugmakers to simplify how Americans get their medicines and political pressure from the Trump administration to lower U.S. drug prices.

Trump in July sent letters to 17 drugmakers urging them to take specific steps to curb costs for patients, including launching direct-to-consumer sales models for their medicines. Companies had to respond by Sept. 29. It was part of his effort to revive a controversial plan called the “most favored nation” policy, which aims to tie the prices of some drugs in the U.S. to the significantly lower ones abroad.

As part of that plan, Trump said his administration will launch a website called TrumpRx.gov, which will have branded drugs available for direct purchase at a discount online. For example, under a new agreement with Trump, Pfizer said it will offer a large share of its primary care treatments and certain specialty branded drugs on that site at discounts of 50% on average and up to 85%. 

The pharmaceutical industry’s direct-to-consumer programs typically offer a heavily discounted cash price, along with free shipping, to people who buy directly from the companies with cash, rather than filling their prescriptions at brick-and-mortar pharmacies and paying with their health insurance cards. By embracing a direct-to-consumer sales model, drugmakers can bypass middlemen such as pharmacy benefit managers and potentially capture some of the billions of dollars in revenue that flow through those intermediaries each year.

Advertisement

Here’s your guide to the industry’s current direct-to-consumer models. 

• Amgen – The company’s new program, AmgenNow, is starting with Repatha. The program’s cash price of $239 a month is nearly 60% below Repatha’s current list price and is open to all patients, including those who are uninsured or in high-deductible health plans or prefer to pay with cash. Amgen said its new cash price for Repatha matches the lowest it now receives in any economically developed country.
• Eli Lilly – Eli Lilly in January 2024 launched its own direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, LillyDirect, to help patients access its weight loss drug Zepbound. The website allows eligible patients to get a prescription through a telehealth provider and can provide home delivery. More recently, LillyDirect also started offering Zepbound in single-dose vials that are half or even less than its usual $1,000 monthly list price. The pharmacy also sells medicines for diabetes, Alzheimer’s and migraines, among other conditions, directly to patients. 
• Novo Nordisk – The company in March said it will offer its weight loss drug Wegovy for less than half of its usual price per month through a new direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, NovoCare. The cash-pay offering is available to millions of patients without insurance coverage for the blockbuster injection. Novo Nordisk in August also started offering its diabetes drug Ozempic at that price point – $499 per month – to eligible cash-paying patients via its own pharmacy and a partnership with telehealth company GoodRx. 
• Pfizer – The company in August 2024 launched a direct-to-consumer service called PfizerForAll, which help patients schedule telehealth services, fill their prescriptions, and access savings programs for the company’s migraine, Covid-19 and flu medicines.
• AstraZeneca – The company in September announced the launch of AstraZeneca Direct, which will directly sell its diabetes drug, Farxiga, and two asthma treatments to cash-paying U.S. patients at a discount of up to 70% off their list prices. People with prescriptions for those drugs will be able to order them from the platform starting Oct. 1. 
• Novartis – The company in September said it will launch a direct-to-consumer platform on Nov. 1, allowing cash-paying patients prescribed its immunology medication Cosentyx to purchase it at a 55% discount off the list price. The discount brings down the drug’s list price to a little over $3,500 from under $8,000 per month. The company said Cosentyx will serve as a way to test the sales model. If it’s successful, the company will offer a direct-to-consumer option for additional medicines and explore a similar approach for large employers “as another way to increase access and affordability.”
• Bristol Myers Squibb – The drugmaker and its partner, Pfizer, in July announced the launch of a direct-to-patient online program, Eliquis 360 Support, which started selling the blockbuster blood thinner at a 43% discount to cash-paying patients in September. Bristol Myers Squibb expanded its direct-to-consumer offerings in September, announcing that the BMS Patient Connect Platform will offer plaque psoriasis drug Sotyktu at a discount of more than 80% off list price to eligible cash-pay patients in the U.S. starting in January. 
• PhRMA – The U.S. pharmaceutical lobby group said it would launch a new website, AmericasMedicines.com, next January to help patients buy prescription drugs directly from manufacturers.

We expect the pharmaceutical industry to strike more drug-pricing deals with Trump, which could include new direct-to-consumer models for medicines, so stay tuned for our coverage.

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

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz has an ambitious list of goals at the agency to help improve the nation’s health system. I spoke with him about his biggest priorities during a wide-ranging discussion at the Aspen Institute on Monday.

When it comes to Affordable Care Act enrollment, he expressed hope that Congress will come to an agreement to end the ongoing government shutdown and extend ACA tax credits which are set to expire at the end of the year. With the shopping period for ACA open enrollment set to begin Oct. 15th, the clock is ticking.

In Medicaid, Oz said CMS is making progress to help states leverage technology to implement new work requirement verification rules enacted by Congress earlier this year. He said the agency has been in talks with tech startups he called “insurgents” to connect them with states in order to streamline the rollout.

“The goal would be to give states several options,” Oz said. “Pick the thing that you think most readily works with you and your system and the current platform you have.”

One of his biggest goals is to make drugs more affordable for Americans, he said.

“I believe by the time the president’s term is finished — and I made this commitment to him — 95% of all drugs in America will be at pricing we can feel proud of,” he said.

He touted President Donald Trump’s most favored nation drug pricing effort and direct sales platform TrumpRx as a big part of that. He also endorsed Medicare drug price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act as another piece of the puzzle, saying his team has been “negotiating aggressively” during the current round of talks.

Then the discussion got really interesting when I asked him what he thought about Medicare paying for pricey GLP-1 weight loss drugs.

He said that as a physician, he’s intrigued by what the drugs can do. But then he demurred on insurance coverage.”It’s the only question I’m going to have to punt,” he replied, adding “we’re in the middle of a lot of action, but you’ll be hearing more about it very soon.”

Advertisement

During Trump’s first term, the administration pushed drugmakers and pharmacy benefit managers to cut costs to $35 per month. That’s now the rule in Medicare.

Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic is among the drugs now subjects to the price negotiations for 2027. You can’t help but wonder whether Oz is looking to leverage that Medicare discounted price across the health system.

Listen to that part of the discussion here.

Feel free to send any tips, suggestions, story ideas and data to Bertha at bertha.coombs@versantmedia.com.