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News|Articles|July 29, 2026

Mid-Year Check-In: How Direct-to-Patient Momentum Is Accelerating

Key Takeaways

  • A compressed 150-day period saw policy and market shifts that outpaced typical formulary-driven timelines and catalyzed manufacturer adoption of direct-to-patient infrastructure.
  • Rising prescription share routed through brand platforms indicates measurable channel migration, with utilization trends significant enough to be reflected in earnings disclosures.
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Gifthealth's Chip Parkinson says direct-to-patient adoption has accelerated since January, driven by structural, not cyclical, market forces.

Pharmaceutical Commerce continues its H1 Review/H2 Outlook series, checking in with industry voices on the predictions they made earlier this year. This installment features Chip Parkinson, CEO of Gifthealth, in the second of a three-part video interview.

In his January article for Pharmaceutical Commerce, Parkinson stated that most-favored-nation pricing pressure and rising consumer expectations were pushing manufacturers toward integrated direct-to-patient models built on technology, real-time data and human support. Six months later, and after the developments he outlined in the first installment of this interview, TrumpRx's launch, new OIG guidance easing Anti-Kickback Statute concerns, and more pharmaceutical companies standing up their own platforms, Parkinson says his thesis has more than held up.

Those three shifts landed within roughly a 150-day window, he says, a pace unusual for an industry used to slow, year-by-year formulary changes. Parkinson points to rising utilization as evidence: a growing share of prescriptions for brands with platform launches are now running through those platforms rather than traditional channels, a trend material enough to show up in quarterly earnings disclosures.

Parkinson says consumer expectations have shifted alongside these policy changes, particularly since TrumpRx's launch. Many patients now expect the same speed, transparency and predictability at the pharmacy counter that they get from retail e-commerce, a bar he said has risen further since January and is pushing manufacturers toward more integrated, technology-plus-human-support models.

Parkinson also notes that the shift is structural, not cyclical, pointing to MFN pricing, gross-to-net compression and looming pharmacy benefit manager reform as durable forces reshaping the space.

Pharmaceutical Commerce asked Parkinson to expand on why this momentum has accelerated and what it signals for the rest of 2026.

Watch the first installment of Parkinson’s interview with PC:

  1. Chip Parkinson on Direct-to-Patient's Big Year

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