Eli Lilly’s dispensing and delivery service LillyDirect comes to UK

[WeAllHaveWings]

https://www.chemistanddruggist.co.uk/news/business/eli-lillys-dispensing-and-delivery-service-lillydirect-comes-to-uk-BT443QVESZEUPNS6FMZT5XZERA/

Eli Lilly has launched its dispensing and delivery service LillyDirect in the UK, the drugmaker announced today.
It said LillyDirect is currently available for private prescriptions of its blockbuster weight loss medicine Mounjaro, and the company “will continue to evaluate” which other drugs are offered through the service.
Online pharmacies Pharmacy2U and Onescript will support LillyDirect as dispensing partners, it added.
Lilly said the healthcare professionals at the private companies it provides the service to will retain “discretion and ultimate responsibility for all prescribing decisions and for the patient-clinician relationship”.
“Lilly plays no role in any clinical decisions relating to patient care,” it noted.
And it added that LillyDirect aims to “ensure that authentic, Lilly-manufactured medicines are delivered to patients” and help “safeguard against the risk of counterfeit products entering the supply chain”.

Not sure how I feel about big pharma having my data and dispensing history.

Will they use it to prevent patients jumping between pharmacies and stock building during shortages. Will they prioritise pharmacies using this service during shortages? Wonder how many pharmacies will go down this route.

Centralised distribution direct to customers should bring about significant cost savings but I also doubt us customers will see any of them.

Very clever of Eli Lilly.

https://pharmaphorum.com/news/lilly-launches-its-lillydirect-sales-channel-uk

A bit more info here -

Rather, the UK version of LillyDirect operates as a post-prescription dispensing and delivery service that will operate in the UK through a network of private UK-regulated healthcare organisations.
Once an eligible private healthcare company has registered for LillyDirect, it will be able to issue private electronic prescriptions to patients, which will be processed and delivered by Lilly's dispensing partners, currently Blueco Healthcare's Onescript service and Pharmacy2U.

So essentially just fulfilment/ warehouse drop shipping - the end user will still go to a pharmacy or similar but Eli Lilly registered partners can fulfil , removing the need for pharmacies to operate their own warehousing/ shipping….

unlikely to have any impact on end user pricing I would think……

I hope it is as simple as that @putthehamsterbackinitscage , but I suspect it won't be.

Our UK pharmacies will have heavily invested in building, storage facilities, staff for these medications.

If this is the preferred model by Lilly will pharmacies other than their preferred ones struggle to remain competitive, or even perhaps viable, giving us less choice?

Could they remove the rebate scheme from pharmacies?

Lilly Direct in US is a different model, but reportedly with their direct to customers model if customers don't reorder regularly they get moved back to list price. Will they be able to do the same here.

What will they be doing with our data and dispensing history - will this further restrict pharmacy discretion

Could it impact customers stopping and restarting treatment without cost implications

Will it remove/reduce price competition, pharmacies may not be able to have have "loss leader" pricing for some doses

I worry this is less about simplicity and cost saving and more about big pharma control, squeezing out every £ of profit they can, and american models for (expensive) health care.