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Pfizer is looking to regain some of the goodwill it gained from the rollout of its best-selling Covid-19 vaccine three years ago by putting the ‘Pfizer for All’ brand on a direct-to-consumer drug platform.
The New York-based drugmaker filed a trademark application in mid-April for a website and app that provides medical information, as well as mail-order pharmacy and telehealth services to U.S. patients under the brand name “Pfizer for All,” according to a U.S. patent and Trademark Office filing.
The early-stage plans are the latest attempt by a pharmaceutical company to bypass industry middlemen and sell drugs directly to American patients. Earlier this year, weight loss drugmaker Eli Lilly launched its LillyDirect platform in an industry first.
Pfizer’s direct-to-consumer platform is being pitched as a healthcare stock initiative through which the drugmaker that helped end the Covid-19 crisis promises to demystify the complex web of doctors, pharmacies and insurers that serve US patients access their medicines, according to two people consulted about the plans.
Pfizer is “trying to leverage some of the brand equity that they got to get the world going again,” said Markus Saba, a marketing professor at the University of North Carolina’s Center for the Business of Health who was previously communications manager at Eli Lilly .
“Lilly broke the mold with LillyDirect and everyone is following with their own unique pitch.”
According to market research from YouGov, Pfizer’s net favorability score peaked at 30.6 on a brand index in April 2021 as it benefited from goodwill from the vaccine rollout, after averaging less than 10 in the year before the pandemic. The favorable score is currently at 23.3, after falling to a low of 10.7 in May last year.
Pfizer shares have lost more than half their value from their peak during the pandemic. The drugmaker has cut forecasts for vaccine sales and investors remain unconvinced of its path to growth. Pfizer was valued at $158 billion at market close on Friday.
“There is both positive and negative sentiment toward pharmaceutical companies regarding vaccine access and vaccine hesitancy, but I think this is probably going to be just as positive,” said Timothy Mackey, professor of global health at the University of California in San Diego.
“Pfizer is trying to take a softer position, where they are not just a pharmaceutical manufacturer, but a partner to you in your disease journey.”
The Financial Times reported last week that Pfizer planned to offer its Covid antiviral Paxlovid, its Covid and flu diagnostic kit Lucira and certain migraine drugs on the platform later this year, according to two people familiar with the proposal.
The platform will provide a “downloadable mobile application for providing medical information,” as well as “mail order pharmacy services” and “diagnostic test kits.” . . for use in screening and detecting diseases,” according to the trademark application, which was filed on April 16.
“With a fairly small investment and minimal risk, Pfizer can open this channel and suddenly have a way to communicate directly with patients,” said Timothy Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.
“But it also now has a new route to market and that gives them a little more leverage when it comes to negotiations with payers.”
Pfizer declined to comment further on the plans. The drugmaker previously told the Financial Times that it has a “history of and ongoing commitment to” helping patients receive timely medical information.