Pharmaceuticals News South Africa

Eli Lilly: Inaugural US telehealth platform delivers weight-loss drugs

Pharmaceutical company, Eli Lilly, has introduced a dedicated website for US residents aimed at facilitating the prescription of weight-loss medications through a telehealth service.
Source: Eli Lilly
Source: Eli Lilly

This initiative comes shortly after the recent availability of the company's new injectable product, Zepbound, in US pharmacies, catering to overweight or obese adults.

The website, LillyDirect, marks a pioneering move by a pharmaceutical company, as it enables telehealth providers to prescribe weight-loss drugs, in this case Lilly's Zepbound and Mounjaro, as well as Novo Nordisk's Ozempic and Wegovy, all falling under the category of GLP-1 agonist medications.

Physicians affiliated with LillyDirect can prescribe any FDA-approved weight loss medication. However, eligibility for the at-home delivery service is restricted to patients specifically prescribed Lilly's Zepbound medication.

"We know that people have come to depend on the efficiency and convenience of digital solutions to meet a variety of their everyday needs – healthcare being one of them," said Frank Cunningham, group vice president, global value and access at Lilly."

"We launched LillyDirect with the hope that it will offer patients an innovative end-to-end experience to manage their health and access their medicines, so they can get back to living their lives."

Individuals with a BMI of at least 30, or a BMI of at least 27 coupled with at least one weight-related medical condition, can use the website. Additionally, the platform will cater to patients with diabetes and migraines.

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