Humana's CenterWell Expands Specialty Pharmacy As GLP-1 Drugs Take Off
Humana's CenterWell healthcare services business Tuesday said it would expand beyond its traditional ... More home-delivery pharmacy services business and will begin filling and shipping orders for the popular GLP-1 weight loss drug Wegovy that are prescribed through three telehealth companies: Hims & Hers Health, Inc., LifeMD and Ro. In this photo are images of Novo Nordisk's Wegovy, an injectable prescription weight loss medicine that has helped people with obesity. (Photo by: Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
Humana is the latest health insurer to expand into the fast-growing and lucrative business of direct-to-patient specialty pharmacy as demand grows for popular GLP-1 weight loss drugs.
Humana's CenterWell healthcare services business Tuesday said it would expand beyond its traditional home-delivery pharmacy services business and will begin filling and shipping orders for the popular GLP-1 weight loss drug Wegovy that are prescribed through three telehealth companies: Hims & Hers Health, Inc., LifeMD and Ro.
The partnership was disclosed by Humana and Novo Nordisk that CenterWell Pharmacy will be its fulfillment partner for NovoCare, a pharmacy the drug maker launched a month ago to provide 'direct-to-patient, convenient home shipments of all dose strengths of Wegovy at a reduced cost of $499 per month for cash-paying patients,' Novo Nordisk said last month.
CenterWell pharmacy's partnership with Novo Nordisk is directed at cash-paying consumers, or what the industry calls 'self-pay' patients, who don't have health insurance coverage for anti-obesity drugs, which are dropping in price but even with discounts cost several hundred dollars an injection.
'Under the arrangement, CenterWell is helping consumers benefit from reduced cost and convenient access to safe and effective brand-name medications,' CenterWell pharmacy senior vice president Guillermo Sollberger said in a statement released during the annual at Asembia ASX25, which draws more than 8,000 companies tied to the specialty pharmacy industry this week to Las Vegas.
The partnership also comes in the wake of the Trump White House's decision earlier this month to scrap a Biden administration proposal to have Medicare health plans for seniors and Medicaid insurance for low-income Americans cover weight loss drugs such as Novo Nordisk's Wegovy.
CenterWell and Novo Nordisk see 'direct-to-patient' partnerships as a way to expand access to those without health insurance coverage for certain prescriptions. Novocare follows a similar effort launched last year called LillyDirect, a direct-to-patient effort from Eli Lilly, maker of the GLP-1 drug Zepbound.
'NovoCare Pharmacy is a direct-to-patient delivery option that offers cash-paying patients the GLP-1 medication, Wegovy, at a reduced cost of $499 per month,' Sollberger said. 'Under the arrangement, CenterWell is helping consumers benefit from reduced cost and convenient access to safe and effective brand-name medications.'
It's the latest health insurer to expand deeper into specialty pharmacy.
Already, UnitedHealth Group's OptumRx and CVS Health, which owns the health insurer Aetna, have expanded more into specialty pharmacy. Optum, for example, has 15 Optum Specialty Pharmacies and two 'Optum Frontier Therapies' that the company says help patients with rare and complex conditions, helping them access more than 200 specialty drugs.
And Cigna, which owns Evernorth health services, has expanded its Accredo Specialty Pharmacy since it was part of the company's 2018 Express Scripts purchase and today serves 900,000 patients and ships 7 million prescriptions annually. Meanwhile, And a year ago, Elevance Health, which operates Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans, a year ago bought the grocery chain Kroger's specialty pharmacy and the year before bought BioPlus.
Eventually, drug makers and pharmacies see direct-to-patient models emerging for other new medicines, particularly as technology advances like telehealth that allows Americans to more easily obtain prescription drugs.
'Direct-to-patient distribution models like this are likely to evolve beyond GLP-1s to include other medication categories like migraine therapies and women's/men's health,' CenterWell's Sollberger said. 'CenterWell Pharmacy is well positioned to scale such programs, with the agility to meet the needs of this growing market.'
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