Lilly adds Amazon Pharmacy as a delivery option for Zepbound through LillyDirect
Patients with a Zepbound prescription get another home-delivery route and round-the-clock pharmacist access, though which pharmacy ships an order depends on insurance.
Eli Lilly said on March 13 that Amazon Pharmacy will fill and deliver prescriptions for certain Lilly medicines, including the obesity drug Zepbound, ordered through LillyDirect, the drugmaker's direct-to-consumer site [1][2]. Amazon Pharmacy is the second online pharmacy to work with the platform, which Lilly launched in January, and it offers two-day delivery to Amazon Prime members [1].
LillyDirect lets patients get certain Lilly medicines for obesity, diabetes or migraine prescribed through an independent telehealth company or through their own doctor, then delivered to their home [1][2]. Prescriptions sent to LillyDirect Pharmacy Solutions will be delivered by either Amazon Pharmacy or Truepill, the digital health startup that has handled LillyDirect orders since launch, depending on the patient's insurance coverage and other factors [1][2]. Lilly said the majority of deliveries will be split between the two partners [1].
Frank Cunningham, Lilly's vice president of managed healthcare services, said the companies plan to divide the orders and that the goal is "a fantastic customer experience where the product gets to them as soon as possible" [1][2]. He did not disclose how many prescriptions LillyDirect has filled or how long Truepill deliveries typically take, but said Lilly expects similar processing and shipping times from both partners [1]. Truepill CEO Paul Greenall said his company has provided overnight deliveries since LillyDirect launched [1].
Amazon Pharmacy Vice President John Love said two-day delivery is not the end point. "We actually don't think that's a high enough bar. We're still getting started," he said [1]. Dr. Vin Gupta, Amazon Pharmacy's chief medical officer, said the service offers 24/7 access to clinical pharmacists, which he said matters for patients starting injectable weight-loss drugs that can cause side effects including nausea and vomiting [1]. Truepill also offers around-the-clock access to its own pharmacists [1].
Patients do not have to use LillyDirect's telehealth service to use the delivery option. According to the site, a patient with a prescription can ask their health-care professional to select LillyDirect as the dispensing pharmacy in their electronic health records system, and the prescription is routed there [1].
Lilly has not said how many patients have used LillyDirect, but said in an email that the platform has drawn "significant interest" since launch [1][2]. The market for obesity drugs is estimated to reach at least $100 billion by the end of the decade, as patients turn to treatments shown to reduce weight by as much as 20% [2].
Why it matters for patients
For someone holding a Zepbound prescription, the change adds a large, familiar delivery option. Amazon Pharmacy's free two-day shipping applies to Prime members who order through LillyDirect [1]. Amazon's pharmacists are available at all hours for questions about the medicines, support that Gupta said is "not widely available in the pharmacy ecosystem" [1].
Which pharmacy ships a given prescription is not entirely the patient's choice. Lilly said deliveries are split between Amazon Pharmacy and Truepill based on a patient's "individual details," including their insurance network [1][2]. Lilly CEO David Ricks told Reuters in January that LillyDirect would make sure coupons that bring Zepbound's cost down to $550 a month are applied, and would encourage users to avoid compounded or counterfeit versions of the medicine [2].
The partnership does not by itself address supply. Zepbound and other weight-loss drugs have faced intermittent shortages over the past year as demand soared, and Lilly has struggled to meet it [1]. Whether adding Amazon Pharmacy changes availability for any given patient has not been reported.
What happens next
Lilly said it plans to add medicines, partners and service providers to LillyDirect in the near future, without giving dates [1][2]. Cunningham said Lilly is considering partnering with a retail pharmacy to offer a pickup option for LillyDirect customers [2]. Walgreens CEO Tim Wentworth told Reuters shortly after LillyDirect launched that the chain could be "a very natural potential partner for someone like Lilly" [2]. Love said Amazon Pharmacy is examining how it can deliver drugs faster than two days [1]. No timeline has been disclosed for any of those steps.
Sources
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