Audience
This virtual roundtable welcomes health care leaders, including but not limited to:
- Health care executives (e.g., CEOs, COOs, CDOs, CMOs)
- Health care investors (equity and debt)
- The drug value chain from script to dispensing: PBMS, traditional pharmacies, telemedicine, and pharmaceutical manufacturers
Background (Why Now?)
Digital pharmacies are attempting to take on industry giants and have secured sizable sums of money from investors to fund this pursuit. These digital pharmacies are pioneering the combination of telehealth prescribing plus dispensing directly to patients. Although these high-growth companies have not gained significant market share, their revenue growth rates are impressive. If this growth continues at the current rate, it will quickly become an area that no one can ignore.
To date, the most successful digital pharmacies have seen the greatest amount of traction in cash pay markets (sexual health, hair loss, and smoking cessation). It is still not yet clear how far this niche opportunity can expand into new-to-therapy prescribing for medically complex conditions, but many would stand to gain if it did. With nine out of ten Americans living within one mile of a community retail pharmacy location, the path to market disruption could be a steep one.
In this roundtable, we will explore the following questions:
Defining the Industry
- What is a digital pharmacy?
- Is there an ideal demographic for a digital health patient? An ideal type of drug for digital pharmacy? Or is digital pharmacy suited for the entirety of the universe of prescription fulfilment?
Growth Drivers
- What are the barriers for traditional pharmacies and health care providers to incorporate digital pharmacy offerings?
- What are the primary barriers to growth? What are the most serious challenges to the area?
- What partnerships need to be forged or refined for the continued success of digital pharmacies (payers, Board of Pharmacy)?
- What are the relative advantages of digital pharmacies?
Business Models
- How will payers and PBM’s embrace and interact with these new business models?
- Will the free-flowing capital behind digital pharmacies build sustainable businesses with long-term profitability?
- Will digital pharmacies just help established players squeeze out costs and facilitate interactions, or will they change the basic structure and functioning of the dispensing business?
- Is the industry underestimating or overestimating the impact of digital pharmacies in the short term?
This virtual event is held in partnership with Cantor Fitzgerald & Bass, Berry & Sims PLC.
