Startups, Pharma

Blink Health raises $90M to ease prescription drug ordering process

Blink Health's CEO and Cofounder Geoffrey Chaiken likened the company to PriceLine, which allows customers to purchase airline tickets, rent cars and book hotels online and fulfill their purchases in the physical world.

Prescription Drugs, Isolated On White, Clipping Path

A health It startup that enables patients to buy generic drugs online and pick them up locally has landed $90 million in a Series B round, according to a company press release.

8VC led this latest round of fundraising for Blink Health, as well as its $75 million Series A round last year. Blink Health will use the capital to increase consumer awareness and to launch several products and services to reduce drug prices and improve patient and partner experiences, according to CEO and Cofounder Geoffrey Chaiken.

Although Chaiken declined to discuss those products and services in a phone interview, he said the company has not set milestones to meet before its next fundraising round.

Blink Health’s overall goal is to provide affordable and transparently priced prescription drugs to patients, who can pick them up at their local pharmacy. As a payment platform, Blink Health can aggregate other sources of funding from pharmaceutical companies and employers to help lower the cost of prescription drugs, Chaiken added.  The company has multiple branded drug programs, including an insulin discount program with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly.

The generic drug market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.9 percent from 2015 to 2027, according to visiongain, a London-based business intelligence provider covering the U.S., parts of Europe, Asia and emerging markets. The market is estimated at $254.6 billion in 2016, $384 billion in 2021, and $574.7 billion in 2027, the company noted.

Blink Health’s target market is the millions of uninsured and underinsured Americans, including an estimated 70 percent on high-deductible health plans.

“That number is growing very quickly,” Chaiken said. “Our demographics are very broad. Essentially, everyone can benefit from Blink.”

Despite its association with online shopping, Blink Health is targeting all ages, including customers in their 80s.

“We have people without computers who go to the public library to use Blink,” Chaiken said. “It’s amazing what people will do to get access to lower prices for their medications. It’s a huge market.”

The business claims more than 1 million monthly active users who are buying the most widely prescribed generic prescriptions.

Other companies, such as GoodRx, offer consumers app-based coupons to present at their pharmacies. Blink Health bypasses the coupon option by giving consumers access to lower prices online, Chaiken said. He likens the coupon-generating companies to RetailMeNot, which lets consumers look up coupons based on the name of the company they want to patronize. Blink Health is more like Priceline, which allows customers to purchase airline tickets, rent cars and book hotels online and fulfill their purchases in the physical world, Chaiken said.

“We really invented our category,”  Chaiken said.  “We’re the first company that allows the patients to purchase their medications online and pick them up at their local retailer.”

Chaiken and his brother Matthew cofounded and launched Blink Health in February 2016. Despite its novel premise and rapid growth, not everything has been sunny for the New York City-based company. The company’s former CFO, Eugene Kakaulin, sued the brothers alleging breach of contract and violating federal whistleblower law by firing him after he alerted them to alleged securities violations. The suit was settled out of court in January for undisclosed terms, Chaiken said.

Photo: Sezeryadigar, Getty Images

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