On the second day of Christmas, we’re celebrating two turtle doves — a fitting symbol for partnership and connection. In 2025, few themes defined the pharma landscape more clearly than the power of direct links between manufacturers and patients.

Chip Parkinson, CEO of Gifthealth, reflects on a year when direct-to-patient models shifted from experimental to essential, reshaping access, reducing friction and bringing the industry closer to the people it serves.

Please share a short reflection of the industry in 2025?

Direct-to-patient (DTP) models are no longer optional in an MFN era. Policymakers want to make sure every dollar the system returns to a manufacturer drivers value for payers and patients. They also want to cut out some of the middlemen in the supply chain. There is a strong, logical conclusion that if we cut out intermediaries, we will have more value delivered directly to patients and less value taken out of the system. Our work at Gifthealth has proven that can happen at scale.

At the same time, DTP is moving the needle on the KPIs that are most impactful for manufacturers. In an environment where you have several vendors supporting patients for a single brand you end up with a lot of handoffs, manual processes and fragmentation. That increases the chance of patient drop off. DTP tackles this fragmentation with a single partner platform. Instead of having multiple vendors, DTP captures the prescription, validates it, processes it instantly, tells the patient the most affordable option for them and moves straight to delivery. By removing the friction, we can get medications into the hands of patients more easily, more quickly and more transparently.