Amgen and other drugmakers are launching DTC programs

The Amgen headquarters in Thousand Oaks, California.

Eric Thayer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

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Drugmakers are increasingly using telehealth platforms to sell their drugs directly to patients — which is exactly what President Donald Trump wants.

Amgen is the latest company to move into the direct-to-consumer space, announcing 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 rebates. This follows similar moves by other drugmakers to make it easier for Americans to access their medicines, as well as political pressure from the Trump administration to lower US drug prices.

In July, Trump sent letters to 17 drugmakers urging them to take concrete steps to reduce costs for patients, including adopting direct-to-consumer sales models for their drugs. The companies had until September 29th to respond. This was part of his effort to revive a controversial plan called “most-favored-nation treatment” that aims to tie the prices of some drugs in the U.S. to those significantly lower abroad.

As part of that plan, Trump said his administration would launch a website called TrumpRx.gov that would offer brand-name drugs for direct online purchase at a discount. For example, as part of a new deal with Trump, Pfizer said it would offer much of its primary care treatments and certain specialty brand drugs on the site at discounts of an average of 50% and up to 85%.

The pharmaceutical industry’s direct-to-consumer programs typically offer a deeply discounted cash price as well as free shipping to people who buy directly from the companies with cash instead of filling their prescriptions at brick-and-mortar pharmacies and paying with their health insurance cards. By adopting a direct-to-consumer sales model, drug manufacturers can bypass middlemen like pharmacy benefit managers and potentially capture a share of the billions of dollars in revenue that flow through these middlemen each year.

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

• Amgen – The company’s new program, AmgenNow, launches with Repatha. The program’s cash price of $239 per month is nearly 60% less than Repatha’s current list price and is open to all patients, including those who are uninsured, have high-deductible health plans, or prefer to pay with cash. Amgen said its new cash price for Repatha represents the lowest it currently receives in an economically developed country.
• Eli Lilly – Eli Lilly launched its own direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, LillyDirect, in January 2024 to help patients access its weight loss drug Zepbound. The site allows eligible patients to receive a prescription through a telehealth provider and offer home delivery. Recently, LillyDirect also began 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 medications for diabetes, Alzheimer’s and migraines, among other things, directly to patients.
• Novo Nordisk – The company announced in March that it would offer its weight-loss drug Wegovy for less than half the usual monthly price through a new direct-to-consumer online pharmacy, NovoCare. The cash-pay offer is available to millions of uninsured patients for the blockbuster shot. Novo Nordisk also began offering its diabetes drug Ozempic in August to eligible, cash-paying patients at that price — $499 a month — through its own pharmacy and a partnership with telemedicine company GoodRx.
• Pfizer – The company launched a direct-to-consumer service called PfizerForAll in August 2024 that helps patients schedule telehealth services, fill their prescriptions and access savings programs for the company’s migraine, Covid-19 and flu medications.
• AstraZeneca – The company announced in September the launch of AstraZeneca Direct, which will sell its diabetes drug Farxiga and two asthma treatments directly to cash-paying U.S. patients at a discount of up to 70% off their list prices. People with prescriptions for these medications will be able to order them on the platform starting October 1st.
• Novartis – The company said in September that it would launch a direct-to-consumer platform on November 1, allowing cash-paying patients to prescribe the Cosentyx immunology drug and purchase it at a 55% discount off the list price. The discount drops the drug’s list price from under $8,000 per month to just over $3,500. The company said Cosentyx will serve as a test opportunity for the distribution model. If successful, the company will offer a direct-to-consumer option for additional medications and explore a similar approach for large employers “as another way to improve access and affordability.”
• Bristol Myers Squibb – The drugmaker and its partner Pfizer announced in July the launch of a direct-to-patient online program, Eliquis 360 Support, which began selling the blockbuster blood thinner at a 43% discount to cash-paying patients in September. Bristol Myers Squibb expanded its direct-to-consumer offering in September, announcing that starting in January, the BMS Patient Connect platform will offer plaque psoriasis drug Sotyktu to eligible cash-pay patients in the U.S. at a discount of more than 80% off list price.
• PHRMA – The U.S. pharmaceutical lobbying group said it will launch a new website, AmericasMedicines.com, next January to help patients buy prescription drugs directly from manufacturers.

We expect the pharmaceutical industry to enter into further drug pricing agreements with Trump, which could include new direct-to-consumer drug models. So stay tuned for 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 Healthcare: Could GLP-1 for Weight Loss Dr. Oz’s next drug pricing initiative?

The Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Dr. Mehmet Oz, has an ambitious list of goals at the authority to help improve the country’s healthcare system. I spoke to him about his top priorities during a wide-ranging discussion at the Aspen Institute on Monday.

Regarding Affordable Care Act enrollment, he expressed hope that Congress would reach an agreement to end the current government shutdown and extend the ACA tax credits, which are set to expire at the end of the year. With the ACA open enrollment shopping period beginning October 15, the clock is ticking.

Regarding Medicaid, Oz said CMS is making progress to help states use technology to implement new work requirement review rules enacted by Congress earlier this year. He said the agency was in talks with tech startups, which he called “insurgents,” to connect them with states to streamline the rollout.

“The goal would be to give states multiple options,” Oz said. “Choose the one you think best fits you, your system and your current platform.”

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

“I believe that by the time the president’s term is over – and I have made this commitment to him – 95% of all medicines in America will be available at prices we can be proud of,” he said.

He noted that TrumpRx, President Donald Trump’s favorite nationwide drug pricing initiative, and the direct-to-consumer platform TrumpRx were a large part of this. He also advocated for Medicare drug price negotiations under the Inflation Reduction Act as another piece of the puzzle, saying his team had “negotiated aggressively” during the current round of negotiations.

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

He said as a doctor he was fascinated by what the drugs could do. But then he declined insurance coverage. “That’s the only question I have to ask,” he replied, adding: “We’re in the middle of a lot of action, but you’ll hear more about it very soon.”

During Trump’s first term, the administration pushed drugmakers and pharmacy managers to reduce costs to $35 a month. This is now the rule with Medicare.

Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic is among the drugs now subject to 2027 pricing negotiations. One can’t help but wonder if Oz is trying to leverage this discounted Medicare price across the health care system.

Listen to this part of the discussion here.

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