Pfizer and other pharmaceutical companies paid up to $2.45 million for a contract with an unnamed telehealth company, according to a report released by a group of senators probing those dealings.
The report offers a unique look inside the relationships between drugmakers and direct-to-consumer telehealth platforms. The lawmakers that produced the report, led by Sen. Dick Durbin, said that a drugmaker connecting a patient with a doctor for the purpose of prescribing them a name-brand drug could lead to overprescribing as well as higher prices for patients.
The investigation did find that patients seen by telehealth platforms that partner with Eli Lilly and Pfizer were significantly more likely to be prescribed those drugmaker’s treatments. Drugmakers pay the telehealth platforms for three-year contracts at a set price; the agreements sometimes provide the drugmaker access to patient and doctor information.
Eli Lilly’s three contract payments to its telehealth partners total $942,500, and the company also gave kickbacks to doctors working at its telehealth partners Form Health and 9amHealth, the report found.
