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Lilly (LLY) Partners Amazon to Deliver Drugs Like Zepbound

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Eli Lilly and Company (LLY - Free Report) has selected Amazon Pharmacy, a subsidiary of Amazon.com (AMZN - Free Report) , as a third-party dispensing provider for free delivery of its select medicines directly to patients’ homes through its website, LillyDirect. Lilly has a similar partnership with online pharmacy, Truepill.

Lilly launched LillyDirect, a new direct-to-consumer website, in January to help patients order medicines for obesity, migraine and diabetes directly from the company via delivery through third-party pharmacies like Amazon and Truepill.

Amazon will now help deliver a range of Lilly’s medicines, including its FDA-approved tirzepatide medicines. These include the diabetes drug Mounjaro and a new weight loss medicine, Zepbound. Both Mounjaro and Zepbound include the same compound tirzepatide, a dual GIP and GLP-1 receptor agonist (GIP/GLP-1 RA).

GLP-1 drugs work by mimicking the hormone GLP-1, resulting in weight loss, lowering hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and reducing cardiovascular risks. The GLP-1 segment is particularly attracting a lot of interest for the obesity indication. Obesity has become a global health problem as it can cause other diseases like heart disease, diabetes and stroke. This has resulted in an exponential increase in demand for obesity medicines.

Zepbound was approved in November 2023 and launched in December. Mounjaro was approved in May 2022 for treating type II diabetes and generated impressive sales of $3.86 billion in 2023.

Lilly’s stock has risen 130.1% in the past year compared with an increase of 33.6% for the industry.

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Other GLP-1 drugs that the FDA has approved are Novo Nordisk’s (NVO - Free Report) semaglutide medicines, Ozempic and Rybelsus, for type II diabetes and Wegovy for obesity.

Despite supply challenges, Wegovy is seeing strong prescription trends and is generating impressive revenues and profits for Novo Nordisk. However, Wegovy is expected to face significant competition from Zepbound in 2024.

Other than Mounjaro and Zepbound, Lilly has also listed some insulins and migraine drug Emgality on LillyDirect. 

Lilly currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.


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