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Eli Lilly and Company LLY is launching a new direct-to-consumer website called LillyDirect, which will allow patients to order its medicines for obesity, migraine, and diabetes directly.

The digital pharmacy will also offer a convenient home delivery option for select Lilly medicines through third-party pharmacies. It will also offer other services like access to independent telehealth healthcare providers and search tools to help patients find doctors near them for in-person visits.

The digital pharmacy should provide patients easy access to Lilly’s FDA-approved tirzepatide medicines, which include diabetes drug Mounjaro and newly launched 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). The GLP-1 segment is a very important class of drugs for multiple cardiometabolic diseases and is gaining significant popularity. GLP-1 drugs work by mimicking the hormone GLP-1, resulting in weight loss, lowering hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and reducing cardiovascular risks.

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 $2.96 billion in the first nine months of 2023.

The stock has risen 69.3% in the past year compared with an increase of 9% for the industry.

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Separately, in an open letter, Lilly warned that Mounjaro and Zepbound should not be used for cosmetic weight loss. Mounjaro and Zepbound should only be used when prescribed by a doctor for “treating” type II diabetes and obesity, respectively. The open letter comes amid a huge demand for obesity drugs for cosmetic use, which is causing a supply shortage.

The letter also mentions that there are safety risks of using products containing tirzepatide that are made or distributed by compounding pharmacies, which are not approved by the FDA. Lilly also recently sued some companies making compounded versions of Mounjaro.

Obesity has become a global health problem as it can cause other diseases like heart disease, diabetes and stroke. This resulted in an exponential increase in demand for obesity medicines. Also, social media has somewhat hyped the benefits of these medications.

According to a Morgan Stanley report, the market for obesity drugs could reach $77 billion by 2030. With the obesity market gaining popularity, pharma companies are rushing to enter the market.

Until Zepbound was approved, Novo Nordisk’s NVO Wegovy was the only GLP-1 receptor agonist approved for treating 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.

As the new website provides a boost to Lilly’s marketing efforts for its weight-loss medicines, shares of companies like LifeMD LFMD and Hims & Hers Health HIMS declined on Thursday.

LifeMD and Hims & Hers Health offer online access to prescription weight-loss drugs. While LifeMD’s stock was down 32%, Hims & Hers Health was down 6.4%.

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

Eli Lilly and Company Price and Consensus

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