Startup Spotlight: NowRx telemedicine prescription delivery

Mountain View, California-based healthcare startup NowRx offers same-day and same-hour delivery of prescription medications.

While mail delivery pharmacies are nothing new, NowRx leverages technology for quicker, easier and cheaper deliveries, processing prescriptions for same-day delivery and automatically applying coupons while ensuring the patients pays the same co-pay as a traditional pharmacy.

Despite only being available in the San Francisco Peninsula, South Bay and Orange County, the company’s innovative model has created a buzz beyond its geographical reach, being described by some as an Amazon-like approach to pharmaceuticals.

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That buzz has led to a total of $21.3mn being raised across eight funding rounds since its foundation in 2015. Upon the closure of its $7mn Series A in 2018, CEO Cary Breese said in a press release: “In pharmacy, and healthcare generally, same-day/same hour delivery is about much more than just customer convenience – it can often be absolutely vital. NowRx is solving this critical last-mile delivery challenge while setting a new bar for customer convenience.

“That’s why we saw the record-breaking response to our latest crowdfunding round. We have reconceived the pharmacy model, taking the best of the offline, brick-and-mortar world and combining it with the best of the online world in order to create something truly unique, disruptive – and highly desired by consumers.”

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, opportunities to minimise contact with the sick are being actively investigated. One such situation is queuing in line at a pharmacy - something which NowRx’s model bypasses entirely and a benefit which the company specifically references, saying on its website: “No more standing in line at the pharmacy with a bunch of sick people.”