Why Pfizer is diving into DTC Telehealth with PfizerForAll

Biopharmaceutical company Pfizer is starting to serve consumers directly through its new telehealth platform called PfizerForAll, the company announced Tuesday. Pfizer said the platform is needed as consumers struggle with a confusing healthcare system.

PfizerForAll will support patients with conditions such as migraines, Covid-19 or the flu. Through the platform, users can connect with independent healthcare professionals via telehealth or in person. They can also have prescription medications, over-the-counter treatments and diagnostic tests delivered to their home, or they can consult them at their local pharmacy.

Additionally, adult consumers can use the platform to find the availability of COVID-19, flu, RSV and pneumococcal vaccines and book an appointment. Consumers can leverage their existing insurance and pharmacy programs, and they can access customer support for assistance with their insurance. PfizerForAll also launched in partnership with several healthcare companies, including UpScriptHealth, Alto Pharmacy and Instacart, though the company declined to disclose the roles of the partners.

“We are launching PfizerForAll in response to an acute need in the U.S. healthcare landscape,” James Allen, PfizerForAll leader, said in an email. “Many parts of the U.S. healthcare system are fragmented and overwhelming. Many people find it complicated and confusing to navigate the fall and winter seasons or to treat acute or chronic illnesses. … PfizerForAll can make managing everyday health faster and easier. The end-to-end offering gives people an easier way to book same-day vaccination and care appointments, receive medications at home or pick them up at a preferred pharmacy, and find potential savings on Pfizer medications.”

Pfizer’s launch of PfizerForAll could be a response to several macro trends impacting the U.S. healthcare industry, according to a healthcare expert. For example, emergency room volume is no longer dependent on Covid-19, which signals shifts in consumer preferences for Covid-19 care, said Sanjula Jain, Ph.D., chief research officer and SVP of market strategy at healthcare analytics firm Trilliant Health.

“Our research also suggests that there are consumer segments that are choosing telehealth for specific clinical use cases, some of which overlap with Pfizer’s focus. Underlying both of these trends is the fact that the current patient care journey is highly fragmented, which has disrupted the traditional patient-physician relationship, creating an opportunity for prescribing-focused new entrants to have a greater impact on the patient journey,” Jain said in an email.

Another healthcare executive noted that big pharmaceutical companies have traditionally spent billions of dollars on education and awareness campaigns for doctors and patients to boost drug sales. However, it can be difficult to measure the return on investment of these efforts.

“By launching direct-to-consumer platforms, pharma can not only do more good by providing patients with greater access to healthcare providers for treatment advice, but they can also more directly measure and optimize the experience that leads to actual prescriptions and medication sales,” said Sean Mehra, co-founder and CEO of virtual primary care company HealthTap. “Pfizer’s move into the sector further confirms the inevitable momentum among pharmaceutical companies that are increasingly partnering directly or indirectly with telehealth providers.”

By creating PfizerForAll, the company appears to be taking a page out of the book of Eli Lilly, which launched a similar direct-to-consumer telehealth platform called LillyDirect in January. However, the two platforms primarily treat different conditions, with PfizerForAll focused on respiratory diseases and LillyDirect focused on obesity and diabetes. Both platforms support patients with migraines.

According to Jain, each company’s strategy is aligned with the “clinical distribution of the total drug pipeline.”

As pharmaceutical companies move toward direct-to-consumer telehealth, anyone following the industry is wondering whether consumers are actually interested in these services from Pfizer or Eli Lilly.

“The bigger question for me is … what is the willingness of consumers to go here versus an urgent care center, a primary care clinic, or a better consumer product like Hims, Ro and others?” Blake Madden, founder of the industry newsletter Hospitalogy, said in a Tuesday edition of the newsletter. “For example, if you have a migraine … do you think about launching PfizerForAll, or would you rather go telehealth with your local PCP? I personally take the latter option 100% of the time. So it will be interesting to see the adoption numbers for these companies.”

Time will tell if these pharma companies will be successful in their telehealth endeavors. PfizerForAll’s Allen noted that the company will track its success by measuring user engagement and feedback. Pfizer will continue to tweak the platform in the coming months and plans to expand it in the future, he added.

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