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GoodRx has officially ventured into e-commerce.
On October 31, the Santa Monica, California-based company announced that it would start dispensing medications through its website, starting with Opill, which became the first FDA-approved over-the-counter (OTC) birth control medication in July 2023.
GoodRx did not previously offer medications for purchase directly on its site, but it did offer discounts on other prescription meds. Since its 2011 launch, GoodRx said that its 10 million users have saved $75 billion on prescription drugs, both generic and name brand.
But GoodRx is not stocking, handling, or delivering the medications, the company said in a statement. Instead, it will have a webpage that is integrated within Opill’s, so patients will get their medication directly from the birth control maker.
Meeting needs. More than 19 million people of reproductive age in the US live in so-called “contraceptive deserts” where it is difficult to access birth control and other reproductive medications or care, according to reproductive and sexual health nonprofit Power to Decide.
Dorothy Gemmell, chief commercial officer and president at GoodRx, told Healthcare Brew that its new partnership with Opill aims to “[help] American consumers have easier access and afford their medications.”
Working with OTC drugs is easier for e-commerce platforms because it is less complicated to dispense medications that don’t require a prescription, Gemmell added.
The company plans to offer more drugs through e-commerce in the future, though she declined to share when those will be announced.