Truepill trickles into virtual primary care and diagnostics

Digital pharmacy startup Truepill is launching two new businesses for virtual primary care and diagnostics. After piloting the services in 2020, it’s now operating around 50,000 primary care telehealth visits per week and is offering its members both at-home and in-person diagnostic testing. For context, Truepill is a B2B company that acts like a pharmacist—it handles the logistics, shipping, and medication fulfillment operations needed for its payer/employers’ benefits packages. Now it’s extending this model into diagnostics and primary care.

Truepill was one of the first startups in the digital pharmacy scene—and it’s spearheaded pharmacy operations for notable digital health startups. For example, well-funded startups like Hims, Nurx, and Lemonaid have outsourced their digital pharmacy needs to Truepill. On top of that, Truepill rode the tailwinds of the pandemic-induced telehealth boom, scoring $75 million in funding in September 2020, which it used to develop its new businesses.

Truepill’s horizontal expansion underscores how digital pharmacy startups are casting a wider net across digital health—particularly in light of Amazon’s encroachment into healthcare.

• This year, Amazon expanded its virtual care business (Amazon Care) to employers across the country—and recent reports that it's mulling in-person Amazon Pharmacy locations pose a threat to players already in the space.
• And we’ve seen niche startups react by broadening their platforms to include a variety of digital health services as the competitive landscape heats up. For example, digital pharmacy startup Capsule is using its recent $300 million funding haul to expand into telehealth and build a one-stop-shop for digital healthcare.