Top healthcare trends of 2025: Biopharma dives deeper into the direct to consumer market

When you look into the future of healthcare, it's easy to fixate on advancements in technology and care delivery: These material developments symbolize medical progress in a concrete way that can easily be traced to patient outcomes and experiences.

But real-world medical breakthroughs are also shaped by its commercial component. Provider reimbursement structures, regulations, and business models all have an impact on the kind of care physicians deliver and patients receive.

In the second part of our annual blog series analyzing the top 2025 healthcare trends, we'll take a look at how the life sciences industry could expand its footprint in the direct-to-consumer (DTC) market following moves by early adopters in 2024.

Keep reading to see how biopharmaceutical developers and medical device makers are tapping into consumers' growing demands for control over their healthcare journeys-and ultimately driving more patients toward their products.

Why are Big Pharma companies going direct-to-consumer in 2025?

Pharmaceutical companies and other life science organizations have a variety of reasons for exploring DTC strategies in 2025 and beyond:

Increased consumer empowerment and personalization

U.S. patients have more choice than ever before when it comes to how, where, and from whom they receive care. With access to provider performance scores, consumer reviews, and doctors' digital personas, patients are increasingly empowered with the information they need to make care decisions that best suit their preferences.

A 2023 study published in the Journal of American Marketing found that nearly three in four patients use online reviews to find providers. An earlier study showed that even consumer-sourced drug reviews can be useful for helping patients find medications that work for them.

Some biopharma companies are recognizing this shift toward self-driven, personalized care as an opportunity to engage with consumers, providing tools and resources that support self-management of chronic conditions like diabetes, obesity, migraines, and anxiety through direct sales platforms.

Technological integration and accessibility

The rise of health-focused apps, wearable devices, and telehealth platforms is accelerating this self-managed care model as well as the DTC approach within the life sciences.

The same smart devices and digital platforms that consumers use to monitor and direct their care provide a convenient pathway for biopharma and medical device developers to sell their products. A patient who's already accustomed to checking glucose levels with their smartphone is only a few taps away from ordering insulin or other medications-a considerably more streamlined process than scheduling an in-person visit with a provider.

By integrating their products with everyday consumer tech like smartwatches and smartphones, life science organizations can both add value to patients' at-home health experiences and seamlessly engage consumers through targeted messaging or access to digital storefronts.

Building brand loyalty and revenue streams

Provider and payor loyalty, rather than patient loyalty, has traditionally been the focus of life science marketing efforts. Providers and payors, after all, have long been the gatekeepers of patient care.

But as opportunities for drug and device manufacturers to engage consumers directly grow, patients' brand loyalty is becoming a critical component of those companies' commercial strategies.

DTC sales, supported by consumer-facing education and other healthcare resources, helps to keep patients engaged with companies' products. This drives a positive feedback loop of increasing brand trust and the generation of real-time consumer insights that can in turn shape product improvements and boost brand trust even further.

Of course, online ordering, drug subscription models, and at-home diagnostics are more than brand-building exercises-they're powerful opportunities to diversify and expand revenue streams in a market that's increasingly focused on shareholder value.

Who are the biopharma players to watch for DTC activity in 2025?

Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories became one of the first entrants in the biopharma DTC market with the release of its Freestyle Libre continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) system directly to patients in 2017. Designed for patients with types 1 and 2 diabetes, Freestyle Libre empowers people with diabetes to monitor glucose levels in real time via a smartphone app.

In September 2024, Abbott increased its foothold in the DTC market with the launch of Lingo, the first-ever CGM device targeted at people without diabetes but who may be at risk of developing the disease. This move greatly expands Abbott's potential consumer base among people with prediabetes or those who may be concerned by a family history of diabetes. According to the CDC, approximately 88 million U.S. adults have prediabetes, and around 84% of people with prediabetes don't know they have it.

In 2025, keep an eye on Abbott as the company is poised to grow its DTC offerings beyond glucose monitoring. Abbott recently announced a partnership with Medtronic to integrate the latter's insulin delivery product into the former's CGM system. They're also developing a deep brain stimulation system to manage severe depression, the first USDA-certified organic liquid infant formula for retail sale, and an aspirin-free heart failure management regimen.

Dexcom

Similarly, Dexcom has revolutionized diabetes care with its G7 CGM technology, which, like Abbott's Freestyle Libre, allows users to track glucose levels through a smartphone app. In August 2024, Dexcom launched Stelo, the first over-the-counter glucose biosensor for patients who don't use insulin, through its own DTC store.

What makes Dexcom's DTC approach so impactful is its emphasis on user experience and integration with broader health and tech ecosystems. Dexcom has partnered with companies like Apple and Fitbit, enabling consumers to incorporate glucose data into their daily health and fitness routines.

As we look to 2025, Dexcom could take this integration further. With the rise of wearable health tech, there's a growing appetite for seamless, tech-forward health management solutions. Expect to see more direct engagement with consumers, as Dexcom looks to offer personalized, tech-enabled health insights that target a wide variety of people with diabetes and prediabetes.

Eli Lilly

Eli Lilly has made headlines with its development of Mounjaro, a GLP-1 medication aimed at diabetes management and weight loss. Early in 2024, the company launched Zepbound, a new GLP-1 drug designed specifically for weight loss that uses the same active ingredient (tirzepatide) as Mounjaro.

Lilly first released Zepbound through its brand-new DTC platform, LillyDirect, effectively establishing its position in the burgeoning biopharma DTC space. Lilly's sales platform is unique in that it integrates three distinct telehealth solutions to enable patients to get a prescription from a doctor in the same digital environment where they can order the drug, blurring the lines between developer, distributor, and care provider.

With the growing demand for effective weight loss solutions and wellness products, Lilly is likely to lean into DTC channels more aggressively in 2025. Ongoing efforts to substantially increase their tirzepatide manufacturing capacity are set to conclude next year, and the company expects to have late-stage trial results for its planned obesity pill by April 2025.

Pfizer

COVID-19 was the driving force behind Pfizer's entrance into the DTC space, as partnerships with governments and retail pharmacies enabled the pharma developer to widely distribute its vaccine to the public through easily accessible channels. But like the other companies we've mentioned, chronic disease management solutions are helping Pfizer occupy even more space in the market.

Late in 2024, Pfizer launched its PfizerForAll web platform, giving consumers direct access to COVID-19 and flu tests and vaccines, as well as migraine medications. We expect to see their offerings on this platform grow in 2025, with the most likely addition being their in-development oral weight-loss drug, ganuglipron.

Learn more

Abbott, Dexcom, Eli Lilly, and Pfizer aren't the only developers making moves in the biopharma DTC space, but they're certainly the biggest of the trailblazers. As 2025 draws near, be on the lookout for other companies to announce new DTC platforms, partnerships that make their pharma and medtech products more accessible to consumers, and care management solutions that empower patients to take control of their well-being.

Our healthcare commercial intelligence platform features the latest news on life science developers, including new products, M&A activity, leadership changes, and more. Plus, it features the claims data, reference and affiliations information, and population insights that help organizations understand who's prescribing what to the patients who are at the center of it all.

To see how we can help you achieve unparalleled growth in 2025, sign up for a free trial with Definitive Healthcare today.

In the next blog in our 2025 healthcare trends series, we'll examine the growth of behavioral health providers within the urgent care space. Could these clinics provide relief to overburdened EDs and help patients in crisis get immediate access to the care they need? Read the blog to see how the landscape of mental healthcare is shifting in the U.S.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.