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February 5, 2014 06:10 am GMT

PillPack Takes On CVS And Walgreens By Mail, Launches A Full-Service, Subscription-Based Online Pharmacy

Screen Shot 2014-02-04 at 7.01.00 PMAccording to studies from the Mayo Clinic, more than 20 percent of Americans take more than five prescription medications each day. This fact goes a long way to showing how big of a role the pharmacy has come to play in millions of lives. While managing prescriptions, medications, and one’s healthcare is critical, it also happens to be far from easy. No one likes these. While earning his diploma at pharmacy school, TJ Parker met Elliot Cohen through MIT’s Hacking Medicine program, and the two decided to run an experiment, through which they hoped to prove that managing medications could actually be far more simple than the process most Americans wrestle with on a daily basis. However, the two quickly learned that in order to tackle the friction within the pharmacy system in the U.S. and truly provide a better alternative, they would have to go beyond apps and smart pillboxes and actually build a better pharmacy from the ground up. After graduating from TechStars Boston early last year, Parker and Cohen finally unveiled the result of their experiments in PillPack — a full-service, fully-licensed online pharmacy. After a year of development, the startup opened up early access this fall to pilot the program with a group of early customers, and a few months and tweaks later, PillPack is today ready for its full-scale launch to the masses. Well, the masses of Americans taking more than five prescription meds each day. To put a fine point on it: As of today, PillPack is now available (read: Licensed) in 31 states, with additional states expected to roll out over the course of 2014. That’s all well and good, but, how exactly does it work you ask? Essentially, the program allows customers to have their medications shipped two them every two weeks in a (yes, two-week) roll of individual packets that are organized by time and date — rather than using those standard, ubiquitous bright orange pill bottles. Beyond their prescriptions, customers can also sign up to receive any over-the-counter medications or vitamins that they happen to be taking on a regularly basis as part of each shipment. Once they’ve established which prescriptions, over-the-counter meds and vitamins they want to receive every two weeks, shipments are sent to their doorsteps, with cocktails arriving in a chain of “dose packs,” each pack assigned to a different of the week — all of which

Original Link: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/wfmcAYFJ1e4/

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