Pharmalittle: We’re reading about Amazon delivering Zepbound, hemophilia treatments, and more

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Amazon Pharmacy, which has sold prescription medicines online since 2020, will now handle some of the home delivery of anti-obesity therapy Zepbound and other Eli Lilly drugs that are ordered through LillyDirect, its new direct-to-consumer service, The Wall Street Journal writes. The service connects patients with telehealth services specializing in obesity that can write prescriptions for Zepbound or another weight-loss drug. The service also arranges for a prescription to be processed and mailed directly to customers. Until now, Truepill had been the only company dispensing medicines ordered through LillyDirect.

The first two gene therapies for hemophilia have so far been met with crickets, STAT tells us. Only a handful of patients with hemophilia B, the rarer form of the disease, appear to have been treated worldwide since Hemgenix was approved in November 2022. After Roctavian was approved for hemophilia A last June, only three patients were treated through the rest of the year. Access does not appear to be the issue. Current treatments can run over $1 million per year, so most insurers have been happy to pay the lump sum. The main challenge is winning over doctors and patients, because other new treatments, including synthetic clotting factors, radically changed the standard of care.

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