Direct-to-Patient Programs: 5 Critical Insights for Pharma Leaders
If you work in pharma and haven't heard about Direct-to-Patient (DTP) programs yet, now's the time to pay attention. Here are 5 key things you should know:
If you work in pharma and haven't heard about Direct-to-Patient (DTP) programs yet, now's the time to pay attention. Here are 5 key things you should know:
If you work in pharma and haven't heard about Direct-to-Patient (DTP) programs yet, now's the time to pay attention. Here are 5 key things you should know:
DTP programs let drug makers sell directly to patients. This means you control the price, build relationships with patients, and handle delivery yourself. You don't have to rely on middlemen anymore.
In traditional distribution, your medicine passes through pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), wholesalers, and retail pharmacies before reaching patients. At each step, someone else makes decisions about pricing, inventory, and the patient experience. With DTP, you make those decisions. You can adjust prices based on what makes sense for your business and your patients, not what a PBM negotiates. You own the relationship from prescription to delivery.
Traditional distribution is expensive. You lose money to pharmacy benefit managers, wholesalers, and retail pharmacies before your medicine even reaches patients. These middlemen take their cut—sometimes 20-30% of your revenue—without adding much value for you or your patients.
DTP cuts out these extra costs. You keep more money, and patients often pay less. Instead of inflated list prices that get negotiated down by PBMs (while they pocket rebates), you can offer straightforward pricing. Some DTP programs even let patients choose between using their insurance or paying cash, whichever costs them less. This flexibility means fewer patients abandon treatment because of price.
There's no single way to run a DTP program. Some work with insurance, others don't. The right approach depends on your therapeutic area and brand strategy.
For example, a migraine drug needs a different setup than a medicine people take every day for years. Migraine patients might need quick access to telehealth doctors who can prescribe during an episode. But patients with chronic conditions might need more support staying on their medication long-term, like refill reminders and check-ins with care teams.
Some therapeutic areas face specific barriers. In specialty oncology, the challenge might be navigating prior authorizations. For mental health medications, the main barrier could be finding the right doctor. Your DTP program should solve the specific problems your patients actually face, not offer generic services that don't move the needle.
With traditional distribution, drug makers don't know much about their patients. A doctor writes a prescription, it gets filled somewhere, and that's about all you know. You might get claims data months later, but by then it's too late to help patients who stopped taking their medicine.
DTP changes this. You can see who starts taking your medicine, where they drop off, and what helps them stay on track. Did patients struggle with prior authorization? Did they abandon treatment after the first refill? Which support messages actually keep people engaged?
This data is real commercial intelligence that can help you make better business decisions. You can test different patient support approaches and see what works. You can spot problems early and fix them before they hurt your market share. You can finally answer questions like "What percentage of patients who start our medicine are still taking it six months later?" with real data, not estimates.
Many early DTP programs used different companies for different parts of the patient journey (telehealth visits, shipping, insurance approvals, patient support, etc.). The problem? When systems don't connect well, patients get stuck in the gaps.
Imagine a patient who completes a telehealth visit but then has to create a new account on a different website to track their shipment. Then they get a call from another company about insurance coverage. Then they receive texts from yet another system about refills. It's confusing and frustrating.
When systems don't talk to each other, 40% of patients give up during the process—not because they don't want therapy, but because the path is too complicated. They have to repeat information, switch between portals, and figure out who to call when something goes wrong.
The best DTP programs use unified platforms where everything connects. One system handles the whole journey. Patients don't feel like they're being passed between different companies, and you get complete data about their experience from start to finish.
94% of pharma leaders are either running DTP programs, planning them, or thinking about them. Half believe most companies will use DTP within five years.
The real question isn't if you'll start a DTP program. It's how you'll do it. Will you build it thoughtfully with the right partners? Or will you scramble to catch up after your competitors launch theirs?
Let's build your DTP program right. Learn more about how we help pharma companies create DTP programs with seamless patient experiences from start to finish.
