How to get PrEP: At-home test launched, available to take right now

Nurx

• Nurx, a Silicon Valley prescription drug delivery
  startup that once
  solely dispensed birth control, is launching a new service
  that allows patients who want HIV-prevention drug Truvada to do
  the required testing at home.
• It’s a big move for the company, which recently
  
  raised $36 million and added Chelsea Clinton to its board
  of advisers.
• It’s also a big deal for people
  seeking HIV-prevention drugs, who currently battle stigma
  and potentially wait months to get the medication.

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In a move that could hint at bigger plans for prescription drug
delivery, Silicon Valley startup Nurx on Wednesday launched the
first at-home test of its kind for HIV-prevention drug Truvada.

Getting the daily pill, which is estimated to reduce infection
among high-risk people by more than 90%, is no easy task. It
can take
several months for someone who wants PrEP to actually receive
the drug. Nurx’s new service is designed to shrink that waiting
period to just a few days.

After starting as a birth
control-only delivery service in 2015, the California-based
startup added a second medication, Truvada (also known as PrEP),
to its list of available medications
last year.

Last month, Nurx
raised $36 million with help from top Silicon Valley venture
capital firms. It also added Chelsea Clinton to its board of
advisers.

There are a handful of
startups offering quick on-demand delivery of prescription
medications. But this is the first time one of these
companies has tackled at-home lab testing — the hardest part of
getting access to PrEP.

“This is a game-changing step towards preventing the spread of
HIV,” Hans Gangeskar, co-founder and CEO of Nurx, told Business
Insider. “It takes away a key barrier to treatment, and so we
really hope to reach the folks that great places like community
clinics are still missing.”

Currently, access to PrEP is limited. Beyond simply requiring
access to a health care provider, getting a prescription also
requires patients visit a clinic, ask about PrEP (which can be a
scary conversation for many), and hope the provider can prescribe
the drug. Oftentimes, patients are referred to infectious disease
specialists who require several visits and extensive testing.

“There’s a big drop off in potential PrEP users at the stage when
they need to physically show up for lab testing,” Jessica
Horwitz, Nurx’s head of clinical development, said. “Getting in
the door in the first place is often the hardest part. We’re
missing whole swaths of people who need access.”

How to get PrEP with Nurx

To get PrEP, patients first visit
the Nurx website and fill out an assessment with a healthcare
provider in the startup’s network to figure out if the drug is a
good idea.

Over 1.2
million people in the US have HIV, and men who have sex with
men are at the highest risk. Heterosexual men and women who have
unprotected sex or use injectable drugs are also at risk.

Then, patients get a testing kit from Nurx in the mail. In a
process that’s somewhat similar to at-home genetics testing
services like Ancestry or 23andMe, patients collect personal
samples and mail them back to Nurx’s certified lab partner for
processing. Instead of simply taking a spit sample, the Nurx kit
requires patients to also send along small samples of blood and
urine. This is done to make sure patients aren’t HIV positive and
to ensure their kidneys are functioning properly, both of which
are requirements for the drug.

Once those steps are complete, patients get PrEP delivered
straight to their door — all without ever stepping foot in a
physical clinic.

The ‘GrubHub for prescriptions’ model is gaining steam

The no-visit-required model for prescription drug delivery is a

big trend across the US right now.

In June, Amazon inaugurated its latest push into the healthcare
industry by
buying online pharmacy PillPack.

Just days earlier, pharmacy giant CVS Health
announced a plan to deliver prescriptions from nearly 10,000
of its retail stores to customer homes by contracting with the US
Postal Service. And a handful of startups like
Nimble and Capsule currently
provide similar services with independent pharmacies using
courier delivery services.

Although Nurx currently dispenses only birth control and PrEP,
Horwitz told Business Insider there are plans to expand to other
medications.

Nurx

“PrEP was the next logical step for us because it can be done
seamlessly through telemedicine, but our balance in terms of
growth is finding clinical areas where there’s need and where
access is an issue,” Horwitz said.

The new at-home testing kits for PrEP will be available in 19
states and Washington, DC as of Thursday; Nurx’s birth control
delivery service is currently available in 20 states and is
covered by most forms of health insurance — meaning that for most
of its customers, the service is free.

The Nurx team is currently looking at adding sexual health
screenings, something it plans to do by the end of the year.
Horowitz said next year will be dedicated to thinking more about
avenues for growth in primary care.

“We’re always thinking about new avenues where we can disrupt
things,” she said.