Building a DTC Platform: Practice and Insights from a Pharmaceutical Company

When George Hampton saw patients struggling to access his company's weight-loss drug Contrave, he knew what to do. That was five years ago—before the COVID-19 pandemic pushed patients toward telehealth and before big pharma companies launched direct-to-consumer platforms to sell GLP-1 drugs in the booming obesity market. But Currax Pharmaceuticals CEO Hampton saw where the market was heading and envisioned a channel that could increase access for uninsured patients while boosting brand awareness. The time was right, and CurAccess was born, allowing patients to buy Contrave directly for $99 a month.

"Obesity in particular is often not covered by insurance," Hampton said. "And we as a society are only now beginning to view obesity as a disease. The big GLP-1 companies really helped the market understand that. Before that, we essentially left the disease untreated. It's still not covered by insurance in a robust way... So we had to find new ways to make the drug affordable."

Contrave is not a GLP-1 drug; it is a combination of naltrexone (an opioid agonist) and bupropion (a norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitor), believed to work by acting on the brain's hypothalamus to control hunger and influence the reward system. The drug is not new—it was first approved in 2014 and acquired by Currax in 2019. But thanks to the growing attention on obesity drugs, especially for patients who may not be suitable for GLP-1s, Currax has seen greater market acceptance over the past few years.

"I saw something similar in the '90s when SSRIs first came out," Hampton said. "Depression was something you didn't talk about. And now... people feel comfortable talking to their doctors about it."

Hampton's decades-long career in the pharmaceutical industry has also witnessed other massive market shifts. Before becoming CEO of Currax, he was an executive vice president at Horizon Pharmaceuticals (later acquired by Amgen) and helped launch blockbuster drugs like Humira and Celebrex during his career.

In recent years, big pharma has joined the DTC trend, with obesity market leaders Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk launching platforms that allow patients to access their GLP-1 drugs at lower out-of-pocket costs. Pfizer also created a direct access channel for migraine treatment last year.

For Currax, the DTC platform has been crucial to Contrave's recent growth. According to Hampton, about 65% of Contrave users obtain the drug through CurAccess. The company also aired its firstContrave television commercialearlier this year, again capitalizing on the national conversation about obesity.

"We piloted it in the first quarter," Hampton said of the ad. "It significantly boosted brand awareness and helped shape patient perceptions of the drug. We plan to roll it out more broadly in the second half of the year, but with more precision."

As Contrave enjoys its moment in the spotlight, including a50% year-over-year revenue increase in 2024, Currax is relying on its DTC channel to attract more patients.

The following is our conversation with Hampton about the rise of pharma DTC services and how companies can build their own platforms.

This interview has been edited for length and style.

PHARMAVOICE: What does it take to launch a direct access platform? What kind of infrastructure is needed?

GEORGE HAMPTON:You have to establish partnerships with reliable and trustworthy qualified pharmacies, which in many cases are well-known brands. We had to establish a direct sales relationship. This eliminates the fees we pay to any intermediary working on a rebate- or fee-based structure, such as wholesalers or PBMs. This allows us to sell the product at a lower price. It's a matter of scale. Look at Lilly's program. You can get at least one dosage for maybe $399 (on their DTC platform), while the list price for that product is $1,100. So you can almost artificially see the level of fees that middlemen are able to charge in between.

You have to do data integration, and other computer systems have to talk to each other, just like any type of partnership. It takes some time, but any pharmaceutical company could build a (DTC platform) within a year as long as they put a team together.

Five years in, what have you learned from the DTC program through CurAccess?

Patients love it. (The drug) can be delivered right to the patient's doorstep, which is very convenient. We've learned that we've greatly opened up patient access to drugs that have traditionally been limited by barriers set up by middlemen. We know that this is more affordable not only for patients but for the entire healthcare system, and we are very encouraged that in the future there could be a vertical model that makes it truly part of a well-established distribution network. We see what Mark Cuban is doing at Cost Plus, and what Lilly, Nova, and Pfizer are doing. Others are entering this space as well. I'm not sure it will become the dominant way of supplying drugs to patients in our current system, but it will be an excellent alternative in cases where middlemen are behaving badly and continuously creating huge barriers to patients getting prescription drugs from their doctors.

What challenges did you encounter during the launch of CurAccess's DTC platform?

If you're among the first to break down the walls, you tend to get hurt. There have been many lessons learned along the way. You need to make sure you're working with quality partners, just as you would hire a CRO for clinical research or a CMO for manufacturing. You need to make sure data systems are properly integrated. You need to make sure doctors are aware that the platform actually exists and is an option for patients. There are many traditional barriers to opening up new distribution channels to increase patient access.

What advice do you have for other pharmaceutical companies considering launching a DTC channel?

I would say, just do it. Take the time to build it, put together a patient-centric team, and get it in place. The most expensive drugs are those that are prescribed, purchased, and never taken. The second most expensive drugs are those that are prescribed, but the barriers are so high that patients can't get them, so their disease progresses because they can't access the medication. If every pharmaceutical company had such a platform, they could make drugs more accessible to patients without middlemen.

What impact has launching a direct-to-patient channel had on PBM relationships?

Whether it's PBMs or wholesalers, they will always do what's in their best interest because they are middlemen. So far, I haven't seen much of an impact. I think the volume is growing so fast that we're starting to have better conversations about how to operate within the traditional system. Rebate programs are good for patients, but that's not how our system works. That's not how our system should work. It prevents middlemen from collecting rebate checks and fees associated with their business. They may be trying to find ways to restrict direct programs because they are completely cut out in those cases. But PBMs and pharmaceutical companies have always had to coexist and find ways to coexist that are tolerable to both sides, so I would say it hasn't changed that.