Today launching lilly direct, a website where patients can find a doctor in person or via telehealth who can if appropriate prescribe certain medicines, among them zepbound which can then ship directly to the patient s door. obviously there are going to be questions from people about safety, about oversight. can you explain the role of physicians and health care professionals. it s a critical part of how the site works. these drugs need to be used under the supervision of a physician. and we re just offering more choice in that regard. reporter: are these independent physicians? will they get any kind of incentives for prescribing zepbound or your drugs? how does that relationship work? yeah, key question. there is no financial relationship between us and the physicians or the online telehealth platforms. reporter: in clinical trials, patients taking zepbound lost 21% of their body weight. approved by the fda in november, wall street analysts expected to bring in billions of do
Doctor about ozempic in 2020. she says he eventually prescribed it, but kept her on a low dose for a year, even though her weight wasn t changing. so she asked about a higher dose or other medications. you felt like you needed to keep raising the issue? that s it. i have seen physicians who almost seem afraid to be proactive with people who are overweight. and i think that really impedes getting access to good care. reporter: both ozempic and mounjaro are drugs for diabetes, but also used offlabel for weight loss. wegovy and zepbound are now the two versions of the drugs, specifically intended for fighting obesity. but as linda discovered, securing a prescription for any of these drugs can be a challenge. eli lilly s ceo david ricks says his company is now trying to change that. i think a lot of people think of obesity as an issue of will power. it s not. 40% of adult americans have excess weight or obesity. that s a big number. reporter: the pharmaceutical giant