Lilly Launches Website, Home Delivery Option for Weight-loss Drugs

(Reuters) -Eli Lilly and Co on Thursday launched a website to help people with obesity get prescriptions through telehealth providers and provide home delivery of its weight-loss medicines.

The service, called LillyDirect, comes on the back of the launch of its obesity drug Zebound last month, making the company the latest entrant to a market that is forecast to grow to about $100 billion by the end of the decade.

Powerful weight-loss medicines, like Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy, have seen extraordinary demand over the last one year, leading to their acute shortage in the United States.

Lilly said its direct-to-consumer service will also be available for patients with diabetes and migraine.

The website will connect patients to independent telehealth providers who can complement their current team of doctors or be an alternative to in-person care for certain conditions, the company said.

The website will also provide pharmacy services through third-party, completing the company’s so-called “end-to-end” service for these patients.

Lilly also said it does not promote the use of its obesity and diabetes drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound outside of their approved purposes, and said it stands against their use for “cosmetic weight loss”.

The company in September filed lawsuits against 10 U.S. medical spas, wellness centers and compounding pharmacies for selling products claiming to contain tirzepatide, the active ingredient in Mounjaro and Zepbound.

(Reporting by Leroy Leo in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)