I have seen several types of non healthcare players move into digital health, be it technology investors and sports apparel companies to footwear companies and yes, car services like Uber. But some of the most diverse set of entrepreneurs that have moved into healthcare have come from the advertising technology industry. Look no further than Nat Turner and Zach Weinberg of Flatiron Health, Bing Doh of HealthCrowd, which also just closed a Seed round, and Stu Libby, the co-founder and CEO of ZipDrug.
In a phone interview with Libby, he said there are plenty more who are following them. After working as an Account executive at Google, he co-founded Solve Media, which recently sold its advertising division to Adiant. That’s when Libby decided that he wanted to move into healthcare, both for the rewarding experience of improving healthcare delivery and the opportunities to transform it.
After researching the area and interviewing pharmacists, he learned that one of the biggest challenges facing pharmacies is the cost of drug abandonment — when prescriptions for medications go unfilled. A Canadian study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine estimated that about one-third of new prescriptions tend to go unfilled. He set out to change the pharmacy experience.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
About five months after a financing through convertible debt over the summer, ZipDrug has raised $2 million in a Seed round led by the Collaborative Fund. The funding round also had participation from Lux Capital, Metamorphic Ventures, Montage Ventures, Notation Capital, Mesa Ventures, Red Sea Ventures, and BAM Ventures — the fund from Brian Lee, who founded LegalZoom and co-founded The Honest Company with Jessica Alba.
Libby said the company, which is still piloting the online delivery platform with pharmacy partners in New York City, said there are a few ways its service can be accessed.
After a physician orders a prescription electronically, patients can access ZipDrug’s app either directly through its website or through a pharmacy’s website, enter their insurance and payment information and provide a delivery address. The medication is supposed to arrive one hour later. Healthcare providers can also order the delivery service directly. Libby said the company’s technology can also be white labeled on a pharmacy’s website. Even pharmacies that don’t have an account with ZipDrug can order the delivery service for their customers. Customers pay $10 for the service. Its delivery team collects digital signatures and confirms with pharmacies when and where the medications are dropped off.
Libby said he and his team are looking at expanding its delivery service beyond New York City to at least two more densely populated areas in the near future (he didn’t disclose where). It also plans to add more staff to the sales and engineering teams. Partnerships provide another way to grow with the likes of fellow digital health startup Pager, founded by Uber’s former CTO.
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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