Health IT startup ZappRx has raised $1 million as part of a pivot from its e-prescribing platform to focus on automating the cumbersome manual process of ordering specialty pharmaceuticals. ZappRx wants to shorten to a few days a process that can take up to 10 days and accounts for a disproportionate amount of pharmaceutical costs, according to a company statement.
It’s also designed to respond to the shift by pharmaceutical companies to increase the development of treatments for orphan diseases with patient populations of under 200,000.
Although Atlas Venture led the seed round, ZappRx also attracted investment from SR One, GlaxoSmithKline’s (NYSE: GSK) venture arm. Jens Eckstein, a partner with the group, had been looking for the right health IT company that was a good fit for the company’s goals. ZappRx CEO Zoe Barry participated in the 2013 Springboard accelerator life science class and that’s where she met Eckstein who became a champion for ZappRx at SR One. GSK’s venture arm and Atlas Venture also have a history — they have participated in a number of investments together.
ZappRx’s collaborative tool seeks to improve communication among pharmacies, providers and patients. It also helps speed up the process of filling out the 50-page risk evaluation and mitigation strategy or REMS documents. By making it easier to notify patients the company hopes to lessen patient frustration from the phone tag that can increase patient frustration and complicate the process of picking up these drugs. Barry points out that studies have shown an increase in patient drop-off the more inconvenient the process for picking up medications is.
Part of ZappRX’s approach gives providers a portal to write a prescription, with electronic authorization and adds diagnostic lab results. It also includes more intelligent form fields designed to make it easier to fill these forms out.
Its lead condition is for pulmonary arterial hypertension — a rare, underdiagnosed condition that affects both men and women. It is also looking at Hepatits C and hemophilia.
Barry, a former Wall Street analyst with a longstanding interest in healthcare, compares what her company is seeking to do with ITA, a software company that helped speed up the way the airline industry does ticketing and was later acquired by Google. It reflects the opportunity entrepreneurs see to develop tools that have advanced the hospitality industry and apply them to healthcare.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Its timeline for the year includes negotiating alliances and sponsorship with specialty pharmaceutical companies and a pilot study of its technology.It also expects to do a Series A round that will support its technology and sales plan.
