Drugmakers Are Embracing Direct-To-Consumer Sales. That's Fantastic News For Patients.

FORBES

Several Big Pharma companies have started selling their drugs directly to consumers (DTC). This shift -- driven in part by President Trump's push for lower drug prices and fewer middlemen -- has garnered relatively little media coverage. But the implications for American patients, employers, and the healthcare system as a whole are enormous.

Over the past two decades, the DTC sales model has revolutionized the way Americans buy everything from mattresses to contact lenses. If DTC sales become the norm in the pharmaceutical industry, patients and employers could save tens of billions of dollars -- by cutting out the middlemen who currently profit from the convoluted and opaque drug supply chain at everyone else's expense.

In recent years, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Novo Nordisk have all unveiled DTC programs for a select handful of drugs. Roche is considering its own program. And President Trump just urged every major pharmaceutical firm to follow suit. The result will be lower drug prices for American patients.

Read more here.