Eli Lilly said Wednesday it tapped Amazon.com's pharmacy division to deliver some of its prescription meds, including its weight-loss drug and migraine treatment.
Amazon delivery will be available through LillyDirect. Eli Lilly launched the website in January to help patients obtain their migraine, diabetes and obesity treatments directly from the company using the online pharmacy, Truepill. Now, medications will be delivered by either Amazon Pharmacy or Truepill.
The new Lilly effort comes as drugmakers face sky-high demand for weight-loss drugs. Both Zepbound and Novo Nordisk's rival medicine, Wegovy, are on the Food and Drug Administration's shortage list. Further, drugmakers are also battling knockoffs from compounding pharmacies.
Eli Lilly Chief Executive David Ricks said in February that patients are driving to "five, six, seven pharmacies to find the medicine they need." LillyDirect "simplifies that process." He also noted the trouble with illicit copies of Zepbound.
"So, by going to LillyDirect, literally, they have confidence in the supply," he said during the company's fourth-quarter earnings conference call with analysts. "And finally, application of our savings programs has also been a challenge at the pharmacy counter, and that happens 100% of the time on LillyDirect."
Eli Lilly stock didn't move much on the announcement, however. Shares traded rose a fraction to 757.84 on the stock market today. Amazon stock advanced less than 1% to close at 176.56.
Eli Lilly's Focus On Weight-Loss Drug
The market for weight-loss drugs is massive and growing. Some estimates suggest the market could hit $100 billion by the end of the decade. Zepbound and Wegovy will account for a handsome chunk of that at a combined $33.04 billion in 2029, according to FactSet. That's more than threefold growth from the 2024 estimate, which stands at $10.71 billion.
In addition to Zepbound, Eli Lilly also lists migraine prevention and cluster headache treatment Emgality on LillyDirect. The drugmaker is also dispensing a number of its insulins through the website.
Amazon notes nearly 40 million Americans have diabetes and more than double that, 98 million, have prediabetes. By other estimates, nearly three times as many people have prediabetes in the U.S. as those who have type 2 diabetes. Roughly four in 10 adults in the U.S. have obesity. Obesity treatments will have a part to play in reducing the obesity epidemic. Eli Lilly's Zepbound has been shown to help patients lose up to 22.5% of their body weight over 72 weeks.
It's still uncertain how long patients will ultimately take weight-loss drugs. In an Evercore ISI survey published Wednesday, respondents said they would continue with treatment indefinitely or until they hit a certain goal weight. But, of those who took a weight-loss drug from Eli Lilly or Novo Nordisk, most stopped treatment within a year.
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