The news: AstraZeneca is launching a direct-to-consumer (D2C) website and dropping the cash-pay prices of two key drugs.
AstraZeneca Direct will launch Oct. 1 with asthma treatment AirSupra priced at $249, a 50% discount on its list price; and Farxiga, a diabetes, heart failure, and kidney disease drug, priced at $182, 70% below list price. Consumers will also be able to order the FluMist nasal spray flu vaccine on the site.
Zooming out: AstraZeneca is the latest pharma company to launch a D2C platform after pressure from the Trump administration to lower drug costs and set up D2C sales.
- On Thursday, Bristol Myers Squibb announced an online platform BMS Patient Connect opening in January with an 80% cash-pay discount on its psoriasis med Sotyktu.
- Eli Lilly and Pfizer launched D2C platforms last year, while Novo Nordisk debuted its effort in March.
- Roche, Merck KGaA, and Zealand Pharma are among the pharmas considering D2C platforms.
- In an earnings call last month, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, who is also the chair of the leading pharma trade group, said its members support Trump’s push for D2C sales.
Yes, and: Drugmakers face President Trump’s Sept. 29 deadline to comply with a May “most favored nation” executive order and July demands. His demands include equalizing drug prices with developed countries, negotiating harder with ex-US countries, and establishing D2C models for “high-volume, high rebate” drugs.
On Friday, Sanofi lowered the price of insulin to $35 per month for all patients, saying its plan built on Trump’s idea “to lower costs for American patients at the pharmacy counter.”