Telehealth companies that offer GLP-1 drugs rewrote the playbook on how consumers obtain the once-pricey medications, health platform leaders said at Semafor World Economy in Washington, DC.
“Because the majority of the population wanted them, providers wanted them for people… that put a tremendous amount of pressure. And the result was pharma went direct,” Ro CEO Zach Reitano said on Wednesday.
What followed was the removal of middlemen, and the list-to-net gap — the difference between a drug’s list price and the net price manufacturers receive after rebates and discounts — magically disappearing after decades of people fighting to remove it, he argued.
Direct-to-consumer access is exactly what the health care industry needed, said Wendy Barnes, CEO of GoodRx. “I think the consumerization of health care has long been overdue,” she said. “And I think the idea that digital platforms such as Ro and GoodRx, that allow the consumer to choose where they get their medications is imperative — as opposed to a directed network, not being able to choose the pharmacy that you want.”
The success of GLP-1 drugs, shown by the demand they’ve driven, is also “really highlighting all of the fundamental flaws in our health care system,” Reitano said.