$5/month UNLIMITED Prescriptions!
There’s been some big news that I’m actually excited about in the prescription world. Which is pretty rare to get my hopes up — I’m a physician so my background is in medicine, but I’ve been working in Health Tech for the past decade, and a lot of it was in the Prescription Space. I’ve seen a lot of smoke but no fire for innovations and now it looks like we have not one but two things to be excited about in 2023!
So jumping right in, the first is Amazon’s Rx Pass announced yesterday — January 24th, 2023. This is a $5/month addon to Amazon Prime — that lets you get UNLIMITED prescriptions delivered to your door just like your clothes and creams and shampoos you order on Amazon. Right now there are 200 Million Amazon Prime subscribers, obviously not everyone will add on this feature, but it’s a huge existing userbase.
How did Amazon get here? Well, it started in 2013 with a company called PillPack. Their business model was a convenient and efficient way for customers to manage their medications. They used a proprietary technology that pre-sorted and packaged customers’ medications into individual packets, labeled with the date and time the medication should be taken. Pretty revolutionary for folks who are on a lot of medications that have to be taken at different times throughout the day! They also had automatic prescription refills, and 24/7 pharmacist support. In 2018 Amazon acquired Pillpack for about $1 Billion.
So $5 for all this is too good to be true right? Well, to start the service is launched as offered in 42 states — but not California or Texas — the 2 most populous states. Second, they only offer about “generic” medications and currently only roster about 50 of these medications (will definitely increase over time).
What is a generic med? It’s one that is equivalent to brand name in dose, strength, route of administration, quality, and intended use BUT does not carry the brand name. Generic drugs are cheaper than the brand name drug and just as safe and effective. The FDA (food and drug administration) makes sure a generic medication has 5 things the same as the brand name drug:
1. Same active ingredient
2. Same strength and dosage
3. Identical in form (so tablet or liquid, etc.)
4. Used for the same purpose
5. Same quality standards.
Not all drugs have a generic version available, Some drugs are still under patent protection which means only after the patent expires, can other companies start selling generic versions of the drug.
The second company I’m excited about is Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drug Company. Mark Cuban is best known for being the Billionaire owner of the 2011 NBA Champion Dallas Mavericks, who currently have Luka Dončić who I think is the most exciting player in the NBA.
Basketball aside, he has launched a company for generic meds delivered to your door as well. The reason I'm excited about his company is that they have price transparency! This is practically unheard of in the US medical system that is filled with black boxes of Insurance, PBMs, Switches — which I wont get into today, but you’ve probably experienced the uncertainty about cost whenever you use the US healthcare system. From shocking $2000 ambulance bills, to fighting to prove a service provided several months ago was actually covered by insurance and not an out of pocket cost — these things are built into the system on purpose to make money and not “oversight” or something like that.
Anyways If you go to his company’s website, type in your drug, it breaks down the cost of WHY it costs that much to send to your door. A very cool thing I’ve never seen before:
Pros and Cons:
Since these innovations are both “mail order pharmacies” — what does that mean?
Well, going to the pharmacy to pick up your prescriptions can be a real hassle. One of the biggest benefits is convenience. With mail order prescriptions, you obviously don’t have to worry about making a trip to the pharmacy to pick up your prescriptions.
Cost savings are also baked in here — lower overhead costs because there is not a physical location servicing customers/patients, etc.
Of course there are always cons to consider: across the aisle from the cost and convenience is the time to arrive. This can be an issue if you need a medication right away because you lost your old meds or something.
Another potential con is that mail order pharmacies may not carry the same selection of medications as retail pharmacies, so you may need to switch to a different medication that’s available through mail order.
Overall, two very exciting new entrants into the US Pharmaceutical space — both have the most important focus in my opinion — the patient! Patient-centric moves like this, reducing cost and increasing ease is the lever that is rarely turned in the US Healthcare space and I am hopeful we will see some more as 2023 ramps up!
