Bristol Myers Squibb is following in the footsteps of some of its big pharma company peers that have rolled out direct-to-patient online platforms offering branded drugs at steep discounts. When BMS launches its new platform in January, its first product will be the plaque psoriasis medication Sotyktu.
The pharmaceutical giant said Thursday that eligible cash-pay patients who have a prescription will be able to purchase Sotyktu for $950 for a 30-day supply. That’s an 86% discount from the drug’s current $6,868 list price, a spokesperson for the company confirmed.
Payers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) negotiate lower prices for insurance plans, but BMS Patient Connect is for patients who pay for their medications in cash. BMS did not specify eligibility requirements, but those who pay cash typically don’t have insurance or their insurance does not cover a particular medication. The company said its new platform will ship Sotyktu to eligible cash-pay patients in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
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“We are taking a leading role in removing barriers, providing transparency and lowering out-of-pocket costs so patients in the United States can get the treatments they need – delivered directly to their door, wherever they are in the country,” BMS board chair and CEO Christopher Boerner said in a prepared statement.
Patients recently gained access to a different BMS medication through an online platform. Eliquis, the blood-thinning drug that BMS markets in partnership with Pfizer, became available earlier this month at a more than 40% discount for eligible patients who purchase through Eliquis 360 Support. Eliquis is a blockbuster seller, accounting for $7.2 billion in revenue for the first half of this year. But in addition to being an older product facing patent expiration next year, Eliquis is one of the first 10 drugs selected for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ price negotiation program. These lower prices are set to take effect in 2026.
Sotyktu is a much newer drug. Its 2022 FDA approval made the once-daily pill first in a class of new medicines — oral small molecules designed to block TYK2, an enzyme that plays a role in inflammation. For the first half of this year, BMS reported $126 million in Sotyktu revenue, a 29.8% increase compared to the same period in 2024. BMS’s Sotyktu could be one of many relatively new products sold directly to consumers via BMS Patient Connect. The company announcement said this platform will allow for “the addition of other BMS medicines that are appropriate for this model in the future.”
Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk unveiled direct-to-patient online platforms last year, with offerings that include obesity medications at discounted prices for eligible cash-pay patients. At the time, the move was viewed as a way to circumvent PBMs and to keep market share from going to makers of compounded versions of the in-demand obesity drugs Zepbound and Wegovy. But offering lower-cost medication directly to patients is also shaping up as a way to meet President Trump’s policy goal of cutting drug prices.
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In May, Trump signed an executive order calling for pharma companies to adopt most-favored nation pricing, in which prices of drugs sold in the U.S. would match the lower prices in other developed nations. Trump provided additional guidance toward this policy goal via letters sent to 17 drugmakers in July. Trump called on companies to provide most-favored nation pricing for all Medicaid patients as well as for new drugs launched in the U.S. But Trump also offered a path to cut out PBMs, which the pharma industry has consistently blamed for high drug prices. The letters said drugmakers will be able to sell high-volume prescription drugs directly to patients as long as those prices are no higher than the prices offered in the U.S.
The 60 days that Trump gave companies to deliver on his drug price policy goals expires on Sept. 29. On Thursday, Reuters reported that the Department of Health and Human Services and CMS sent the White House details of a drug pricing pilot that must be cleared by the Office of Management and Budget. Two unnamed lobbyists told Reuters that they expect this plan will evoke the most-favored nation drug price plan proposed in the first Trump administration. That plan, issued by executive order, proposed testing most-favored nation pricing for 50 drugs covered under Medicare Part B. The 2020 most-favored drug price proposal ran into legal challenges and was later rescinded under the Biden administration.
Photo by Bristol Myers Squibb