In many places, this is the last weekend to hit the pool so let’s keep this short so you can get out there and get the most out of this long weekend. Just two quick stories and you’re off.
DTC You Know Me. Both Lilly and Pfizer made news this week with their latest direct to consumer offerings. Lilly introduced a vial (so no pen) version of Zepbound for cash-paying patients. It is the starting does of the medicine but an interesting twist on the direct-to-consumer (DTC) path. And Pfizer started a program for migraine, flu and COVID called PfizerForAll. Taken as single stories, nothing too exciting but could it signal a bigger DTC trend? I think so. Nothing to overthrow our current system but a shift for some conditions and patients.
Biosimilars for Humira have been on the market over a year and a half and traction has been disappointing. While the prices for biosimilars are lower than Humira, the rebates Humira is offering are presumably too good to pass up. What we have seen in the case of CVS Health and now Express Scripts is that when the pharmacy benefit manager creates its own biosimilar, Humira gets pulled from the preferred formulary. The precedent for future biosimilars is tumultuous.