Digital health tech funding continues to rebound in 2025, bolstered by AI deals. Funding reached $3.9 billion in Q3, already surpassing last year’s total, per PitchBook. AI is driving a new wave of digital health investment, and both healthcare systems and providers will feel pressure to adopt AI-assisted tool, not just experiment with them.
House Democrats introduced a new healthcare bill on Thursday aimed at expanding prescription drug price negotiations and extending Medicare benefits to consumers covered by private insurance. The proposal is unlikely to advance out of the House, but it adds fuel to the ongoing debate over drug pricing, and increases the pressure on pharma companies.
Starting next year, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly will sell their weight loss shots directly to employers, cutting out pharmacy benefit managers, per Bloomberg. This move further signals drugmakers’ push into direct sales, both to consumers and employers. More businesses will likely cover obesity drugs for their workers if they can achieve greater cost control of their offered benefits. And pharma supply chain middlemen could feel mounting pressure to shift further away from the prescription drug rebate model that so many in the industry decry.
Lab testing company Function Health raised a $298 million oversubscribed Series B funding round, bringing the company’s valuation to $2.5 billion. Consumer adoption of cash-pay wellness services is surging, though offerings exceeding $1,000 all-in may see constrained demand. Companies entering D2C lab testing should avoid overpromising the value of testing hundreds of biomarkers, ground their claims in solid science, and be transparent about pricing—including add-on costs.
Most consumers aren’t too familiar with the CDC’s recent COVID-19 vaccine guideline changes, and those who have heard about them say the updates are unlikely to affect their decision to get the shot, according to an October 2025 Pew Research Center survey. Vaccine makers can partner with medical groups and pharmacies to disseminate information through traditional and digital media. Communication shouldn’t challenge CDC guidance or politicize the issue, but should explain where to get the shot, note any insurance changes, and outline special considerations for people with certain medical conditions.
Abbott is spending $21 billion to buy cancer testing company Exact Sciences, known for its Cologuard colorectal cancer at-home test in a box. Abbott’s purchase of Exact highlights the move toward consumer-friendly at-home cancer screenings.
CVS Health’s Aetna is adding conversational generative AI (genAI) to its insurance website and mobile app. Aetna’s move highlights how insurers can use genAI to become more attractive to employer benefit packages.
Speaking with EMARKETER at Web Summit, Vast chief astronaut and former NASA commander Drew Feustel described how the company’s Haven 1 station is designed to shift low Earth orbit from a research environment to a commercial manufacturing platform. Building on decades of ISS science, Vast aims to serve industries like biotech, pharmaceuticals, and advanced materials that benefit from microgravity’s unique conditions. With the space economy expected to reach $1.8 trillion by 2035, Feustel says the next leap is scaling production—from artificial retinas to specialty crystals—into repeatable, revenue-generating processes. For brands and investors, orbit is becoming a legitimate industrial supply chain.
The average cost of employer-sponsored health insurance is expected to surpass $18,500 per US worker in 2026, according to a Mercer survey released this week. That would represent a 6.7% jump from 2025—the largest increase in 15 years. Employers must conduct due diligence of vendors that offer healthcare cost-containment solutions to ensure the products are effective and deliver actual savings. Companies will also want to thoroughly evaluate their contracts with pharmacy benefit managers to better understand their prescription drug benefits, while limits on GLP-1 coverage, especially as upcoming oral versions and new condition approvals drive up demand.
47% of US adults are worried about how they’ll pay for necessary healthcare expenses next year, according to a West Health and Gallup study published today. Consumer anxiety over rising insurance premiums, drug prices, and co-pay costs is accelerating, while geographic disparities are widening the gap in who can access and afford care.
Novo Nordisk is dropping the cash-pay price of its blockbuster GLP-1 drugs Wegovy and Ozempic from $499 per month to $349 for existing patients. Novo is betting on lower prices to lure some patients away from Zepbound. However, Lilly’s D2C strategy for Zepbound is working—the drugmaker said that about 35% of new Zepbound prescriptions are from the self-pay channel. It’s a signal that most patients who are prescribed Zepbound aren’t asking to switch to Wegovy. That could shift if the price gap between the two drugs widens.
Agentic AI company Infinitus is rolling out new tools designed to boost pharma companies’ direct-to-consumer (D2C) platforms. As pharmaceutical companies move to sell drugs directly to patients, the immediate next step is raising awareness and making their online platforms easy to use. It’s not just about selling a medicine—it’s about building relationships, ensuring patients don’t discontinue treatment, and providing a better healthcare experience than what consumers are typically used to.
GoodRx is launching a weight loss telehealth membership plan and discounting the cash-pay price for low doses of Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy to $199 per month. GoodRx is newer to telehealth, but already making waves and forging closer relationships with drugmakers.
18% of US adults have tried a GLP-1 drug to lose weight or to treat diabetes or heart disease, and 12% are currently using them, per new KFF survey data. That’s a sharp increase from 12% who had taken a GLP-1 and 6% of consumers who were using one in 2024. Marketers will need to capitalize on growing interest and awareness by positioning GLP-1 use around whole health, not just weight loss.
More than half of women received a mental health diagnosis after perimenopause symptoms began, according to a Biote survey in August. For healthcare providers, adding basic perimenopause assessments to routine visits can help distinguish hormonal shifts from mental health conditions.
Nearly one-third (31.4%) of US adults will purchase a prescription drug at an online pharmacy this year, per EMARKETER’s first-ever forecast of online pharmacy users. Online pharmacies won’t dominate prescription drug purchases anytime soon, but they’re becoming a core part of how consumers shop and pay for medications. Pharmacies that combine the best of in-person and digital offerings will be well-positioned to win customers. That means staffing stores appropriately during busy hours, ensuring pharmacists can answer questions both online and in person, and providing intuitive websites and apps for prescription management and payment. Online-only pharmacies will want to clearly showcase their accreditations in consumer marketing.
The FDA appointed long-time cancer therapy regulator Dr. Richard Pazdur as the new director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). Pazdur’s appointment is likely to reassure drugmakers that have been concerned about regulatory changes and slower drug reviews and approvals, and signals a return to more predictable science-driven drug evaluation and oversight.
Hours after online healthcare company Mangoceuticals claimed partnerships with Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly to provide discounted weight loss drugs to cash-pay customers, both drugmakers denied any affiliation. As GLP-1 compounders lose their pricing edge, smaller players must resist overstating their ties to Novo and Lilly. While any healthcare provider can prescribe Lilly’s or Novo’s GLP-1s, manufacturer-set discounts won’t be made available to companies that engage in misleading marketing.
Telehealth provider Hims & Hers is adding direct-to-consumer lab testing services in a new partnership with Quest Diagnostics. While the ability to self-order lab tests through platforms like Hims offers convenience and new insight into potential health risks, it also puts more responsibility on consumers.
Eli Lilly will no longer offer CVS Health’s prescription drug benefit plan for its employees, per Bloomberg. Lilly may have been considering another pharmacy benefits manager outside of this news. But it’s more likely that CVS’ choice to promote a rival drug (Wegovy) over Zepbound was Lilly’s breaking point—showing that even employee benefit plans can be used as leverage in the battle for weight loss drug dominance.