Following the partnership between Amazon and Eli Lilly that will make available the latter’s drugs including the highly requested weight-loss drug Zepbound for home delivery in the US;

Costanza Alciati, Pharma Analyst at GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company, offers her view:

“Eli Lilly is expanding its online power in its head-to-head competition with Novo Nordisk in the diabetes and obesity markets. The company launched its own online healthcare and pharmacy services LillyDirect at the start of 2024 and it has been expanding its supplier network ever since.

“LillyDirect is not only an online pharmacy allowing access to Eli Lilly’s medications (upon prescription), but it also offers online services such as management resources and doctors consultations, which in the US are hard to get access to.

“Following the high demand for weight-loss drugs, distributing those medicines directly to the patient’s home is thought to also mitigate the black market issue of illegitimate copies of weight-loss jabs being sold to patients.

“Eli Lilly’s new GLP-1 receptor agonist Zepbound generated $175.8 million in the US from the date of its approval in November to the end of the year, and with Amazon’s fast delivery and discounts on medications, Eli Lilly’s sales are expected to skyrocket in the coming year. Surely, by facilitating its medicines access in the world’s biggest obesity market, Eli Lilly made a great move to promote Zepbound’s utilization over competitor Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, which is still facing shortages issues in the major markets.”