Tampa, Florida-based startup Aspen RxHealth is launching out of stealth with $9 million in Series A funding to create an on-demand system to connect patients and pharmacists.
With CVS Health and Walgreens both rolling out same-day delivery services – and Amazon poised to make a big splash in the way medication is purchased through its PillPack acquisition – the theory is that pharmacists will become more like advisory health partners than medication dispensers.
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The idea behind Aspen RxHealth is to provide a tool that fits into what the company views as the changing role of pharmacists in a healthcare system where prescription subscriptions and at-home delivery becomes more commonplace.
“We think of pharmacists anywhere at any time working as a community serving those in need. Every patient is unique and so is every pharmacist. At Aspen RxHealth our goal is to leverage these individual characteristics to optimize communication and enhance the experience for everyone involved,” Aspen RxHealth CEO David Medvedeff said in a statement.
Essentially the company wants to function as an on-demand marketplace for pharmacists less physically tied down to brick-and-mortar retail pharmacy locations. To this end the company has built its clinical tools outside the dispensing pharmacy workflow.
Aspen RxHealth’s platform is set for a commercial launch in Q2 2019 and the company’s capital raise will be directed at the continued development of its platform as well as helping to hire more staff. The company plans to double its headcount over the next 12 months.
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Initially the Aspen RxHealth’s major customers will be health plans looking to connect their members to licensed pharmacists to optimize the use of their medication, boost adherence, close care gaps and provide services like medication therapy management.
First, this will start with outreach to patients by phone, but Medvedeff said the hope is to eventually expand to patient-initiated conversations that could happen through the platform or in-person.
Future customers include health systems wanting to improve patient outcomes through medication adherence and medication titration as well as specialty pharmacies who are delivering complex therapeutics that need additional education and guidance to use effectively.
Tailwinds for the company, according to Medvedeff, include growing demand for value-based contracts and push for quality metrics that better align the prescriber, payer, patient and pharmacy.
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