Eli Lilly launches Mounjaro home delivery service

Patients with e-scripts can now get tirzepatide (sold as Mounjaro) delivered straight to their home with the launch of LillyDirect, a new online platform from pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.
 
While the RACGP has labelled the move a ‘fragmented free-for-all’, Lilly Australia says the platform allows for ‘competitive pricing’ for patients, with digital health company Evermed to partner with pharmacies to dispense and deliver the medications.
 
The initiative will allow patients with an e-script from their GP to have their prescription filled online via LillyDirect instead of at a local pharmacy.
 
The script is submitted, verified and directed to a licensed third-party pharmacist for dispensing, before being delivered to the patient’s home.
 
The manufacturer says LillyDirect will later expand ‘to include other Lilly medicines not funded through the PBS’, and in the coming months would also offer a ‘click and collect’ option from local pharmacies.
 
Lilly Australia said GPs will play ‘a key role in supporting eligible patients’ to access Mounjaro via LillyDirect by informing their patients of the new offering.
 
While the move ‘has the potential to lower costs, which would be good for patients’, RACGP President Dr Michael Wright told newsGP the new platform also raises ‘a real concern about the risks’ to patients.
 
‘These GLP-1 agonists are powerful medications that can have serious side effects, so it’s important that they’re taken and treated seriously, like other pharmaceuticals,’ he said.
 
‘Just because they’re not on the PBS for some circumstances, we still need to have proper oversight into what’s happening.
 
‘We need to make sure that the regulation around them follows the same pathways that have kept Australians safe and well for generations, and don’t create this fragmented free-for-all.’
 
Dr Wright is concerned by the lack of visibility multiple dispensers would have into people’s full medications list, creating the risk of contraindications.
 
‘We’ve seen serious side effects and deaths when telehealth providers weren’t able to access full patient information, and this model of just dispensing a selected number of medications means you won’t have the full visibility that allows you to provide the safe care that patients need,’ he said.
 
‘We’ve heard of situations where people with eating disorders have been accessing these medications away from their usual GP, and so there’s a worry that this new model might create the potential for them to be dispensed away from their usual pharmacist, who might also have similar concerns.
 
‘We’ve seen concerns raised from AHPRA about these medications and others being prescribed incorrectly, which suggests we really need some clearer visibility about prescribing and dispensing of these medications.’
 
Lilly Australia General Manager Manny Simons said LillyDirect ‘is about making medicines not funded through the PBS more accessible and affordable for more Australians’.
 
‘LillyDirect complements the care provided by GPs and other healthcare professionals by offering access to competitive pricing that may enhance affordability for patients,’ he said.
 
‘In our extensive consultations with GPs, we have repeatedly heard that they want more affordable access to our medicines.
 
‘LillyDirect forms part of our response, while we continue to advocate for broad reimbursement via other pathways.’
 
In April this year, Lilly Australia rejected a Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee recommendation that Mounjaro be added to the PBS, saying the ‘price conditions proposed by the Australian Government are unrealistic and unviable’.
 
It was Lilly Australia’s fourth attempt to have Mounjaro added to the PBS.
 
A Lilly spokesperson told newsGP LillyDirect’s ‘initial focus’ is on treatments for chronic weight management, type 2 diabetes, and moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnoea with obesity, ‘where there is a clear need for competitive pricing, convenience and simplicity’.
 
‘Lilly will continue to evaluate which medicines are offered through LillyDirect,’ they said.
 
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AHPRA e-script Evermed Lilly Australia LillyDirect Mounjaro Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme tirzepatide