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The widening gulf between extraordinary consumer demand for medicines and supply constraints has led to unprecedented drug shortages and, in some cases, soaring costs. How can the industry close the gap? Some say transparency and emerging platforms may lead the way.
Peter Axe, CEO of UpscriptHealth
Permissions granted by UpScriptHealth
Legally established in 2002, the combination of telemedicine and DTC drug sales could more directly link patients to the supply chain, help eliminate drug shortages, and potentially reduce out-of-pocket costs. said Peter Ax, CEO of Upscript Health, a telemedicine company that got an early start on the idea by issuing the first compliant online prescriptions.
Ax sees the potential for DTC drug sales to upend the current system’s opaque “oligopoly” run by pharmacy benefit managers for branded treatments and hospital purchasers for generic drugs. Transparency in market demand and supply allows health care providers to make more informed prescribing decisions and allows manufacturers to maintain supply as needed, he said.
“We must eliminate the market forces that create dishonest and inefficient markets,” Ax said. “We need to break up these oligopolies, and the holy grail is transparency. When PBMs are transparent about what their rebates are, how much they buy, and where supplies are located in hospitals, we can work toward efficient markets. Masu.”
Ax connects patients and healthcare providers with direct links to prescription services as pharmaceutical companies further explore DTC options for drug distribution, such as Eli Lilly’s LillyDirect and Pfizer’s plans in this space We feel that the demand for platforms like UpScriptHealth has reached a “tipping point.” Manufacturer supplied product.
Ax said the company is working on “all kinds of diseases that we didn’t expect,” including diabetes, weight loss, migraines, and more complex areas such as cancer, sickle cell anemia, and rare diseases. He said there was. Harvard Business School 2022 Case Study UpScript found that it has the potential to “upend the standard model of pharmacy insurance and the (PBM) channel that dominates the industry.”
According to Ax, DTC sales and telemedicine can have the greatest impact when they bring transparency to consumers.
“Every pharmaceutical company we know is developing solutions that bring them closer to consumers for a better patient experience and empower patients to make informed decisions about the medicines they are taking. “We’re looking into it,” Ax said, noting what the company has seen so far. Experience that growth firsthand.
In 2022, UpScript entered into seven major pharmaceutical partnerships. The following year, they signed 17 partnerships. This year, Ax said, UpScript is “constrained” to just over 30 companies, and could have more than 50 by 2025.
There has long been an “existential risk” in an industry that wasn’t ready for the big impacts of telemedicine and DTC sales, but Axe now sees pharma companies embracing the concept and its ability to cut out the inefficiencies associated with middlemen such as PBMs.
“The vision we had 20 years ago wasn’t quite right for 15 or 16 years,” Ax said. “It was only about five years ago that it started to take hold and become more standard. By 2024, this is becoming the industry standard.”
Regulatory minefield
Some pharmaceutical giants have begun considering DTC options, but regulations could complicate the strategy. For example, state-level rules can be “esoteric and nuanced,” Ax said.
“Compliance is fundamental to what we do, and we spend millions of dollars to do so,” Ax said. Staying compliant with prescription regulations can be difficult. Startups like Cerebral He is under fire for allegedly prescribing controlled substances illegally.
That’s why, A changing landscape Ax said betting on telemedicine and DTC sales is a risk given the rules and regulations. But now the trajectory is toward online prescriptions and online sales.
“We were concerned about the law prohibiting prescriptions over the internet,” Ax said. “We used to limit investment in certain areas because we were worried about silver bullets that would put us out of business, but now we don’t feel that way at all.”
Empower the doctors
Healthcare providers are the point of contact for patients, providing medical and prescription information. If a drug is in short supply, your doctor can determine what other options are available.
Even at this point in the medical journey, apps like Epocrates can help curb drug shortages by guiding prescribers to help patients obtain specific medications or determine alternative medications. Dr. Ann Meneghetti, the app’s designer and executive director of medical information at Epocrates, says that combining medical knowledge with access and affordability may require a more holistic perspective. said.
“This is not what we went to medical school for. It’s important for physicians to be in a position to help patients make good decisions about the best way to obtain their medications,” Meneghetti said. “And an app that combines health insurance prescribing information with retail pricing options is critical.”
Direct access to the source is a way to bring transparency to a system that often doesn’t inform patients or even their doctors, Meneghetti said.
“It is heartbreaking beyond words to hear about patients not taking the medication they were supposed to be taking because they could not afford it or it was not available. ,” Meneghetti said. “Making information available to patients about how they can get their medicines is a complex calculation…and bringing it all together is the ideal solution.”
