ZappRx and Digital Pharmacist are completely different businesses but they both use digital technology to help their customers navigate the complex process of drug ordering and related services. For ZappRx, these customers are health systems and payers. For Digital Pharmacist it is community pharmacies and their interaction with customers.
ZappRx inked a deal with Tufts Medical Center to roll out its specialty drug ordering platform in the division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, according to a news release. Pulmonary arterial hypertension is the first condition ZappRx developed its specialty drug ordering service with more conditions in the works. The company takes what is currently a laborious process for filling out lengthy risk evaluation and mitigation strategy or REMS documentation and consolidates it. Users can save the information required to fill a specialty prescription in one step, including pharmacy information, payer and prior authorization requirements, and pertinent patient clinical history.
The pulmonary arterial hypertension patient population is a high risk group. The average patient with this condition can only go a couple of days without their medication and they often make 39 hospital visits per year.
Meanwhile, Digital Pharmacist wants to position pharmacists and pharmacies to compete more effectively with the big box stores that tend to dominate the pharmacy landscape. By providing personalized services to these businesses it sees a way to help them better address the needs of their respective customer bases.
The business raised $6.5 million in a Series B round, according to a company press release. Activate Venture Partners in New York City and LiveOak Venture Partners in Austin led the round.
The fundraise follows the acquisition of the app PocketRx from software developer Praeses. Robert Terrell, product manager for PocketRx, joined Digital Pharmacist as product development director.
Customers use the app to track their own medications and refills. The app also provides services to community pharmacists designed to improve their marketing reach and give them better insights on their customers. A fully consolidated version of the app was expected to be ready by the summer.
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.
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