5 mins with... Jerry Gross, Medvantx

Jerry Gross is the CEO of Medvantx, a mail-order pharmacy that partners with manufacturers and medical device companies to provide a direct-to-patient service. Here he tells us about the impact COVID-19 had on pharmacy delivery, and how they 

What challenges did your partners face at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Our manufacturers experienced an increase in demand for pharmacy delivery. More and more patients were wanting to receive prescriptions directly at home and avoid a potentially-risky trip to the pharmacy. 

For the same reasoning, it also became even more critical that the supply chain experienced minimal disruption, and that medications were delivered safely and efficiently.

How did you overcome these as the pandemic progressed?
Medvantx had to scale our operations to meet the increased demand. We hired 118 more people, doubled our warehouse space within UPS and upgraded our technological capabilities. This allowed us to increase our delivery speed and provided manufacturers with a valuable option to reach patients at home. 

What do you think the long term impacts of the pandemic will be on the pharmaceutical industry?
It will be driven by how long the pandemic takes to evolve into an endemic environment, where we learn how to survive and sustain our lifestyles. From a corporate perspective, the long-term impact is that in order for companies to survive and remain competitive, we will have to exercise sustained agility and flexibility in all aspects of our business including how we work and the business and markets we serve. 

The undeniable impact of the pandemic will be the ever-increasing demand for healthcare to be accessible and rapidly implemented at home.

How will Medvantx leverage meet the demands of the post-pandemic world? 
Medvantx solutions are front-end agnostic and carrier agnostic. We’re able to work with any manufacturer or medical device company. 

We do everything from patient assistance programs (PAP to direct-to-patient cash fulfilment, and are able to fulfil everything from ambient to temperature sensitive to devices. 

Above all, for us, it's less about technology and more about being a trusted partner. We pride ourselves on the relationships we build, maintaining open lines of communication with our partners to identify ways to continually improve.