Even as vaccine manufacturing has grown, with President Joe Biden promising enough vaccines for all Americans by May, the chaotic implementation, coupled with the vaccine’s hesitation, has created an unequal supply and demand equation across the country.
Missed vaccination appointments resulted in some remaining doses of the COVID-19 vaccine available later in the day and, in some cases, being discarded when vaccines expire.
That’s why startups like Dr.B, and even public companies like GoodRx (GDRX), are getting into the business of bringing the latest information to patients and even matching patients to vaccines based on priority eligibility and codes CDC postcards.
Dr.B was launched in late January, led by former ZocDoc CEO Cyrus Massoumi, and has already accumulated 1 million registrations.
The design of the site is simple, with vaccine sites providing Dr.B with how many doses are available and when they expire. Dr.B then matches the locations with the patients and notifies eligible candidates via text.
Dr.B does not sell patient information, which is only shared when the vaccine nomination is accepted by the patient, Massoumi said.
The platform helps to avoid what is currently a labor intensive search for expired doses – with Americans chasing pharmacies and other vaccination sites towards the end of the day in hopes of skipping the line to get an injection. In some cases, health professionals have chosen to provide doses about to expire to family and friends, often facing significant repercussions.
“Patients are canceling and not showing up 20% -30% of the time. This is resulting in the confusion that is happening at vaccination sites across the country, and it is resulting in a potentially suboptimal allocation of the vaccine,” said Massoumi, noting which was what sparked his interest in launching the site.
But Massoumi said that while his website could help someone take a photo earlier, they shouldn’t trust it as the first choice.
“This is a plan B, this is a backup option,” said Massoumi.
The site currently offers free services to patients and vaccination sites, and Massoumi said there are no immediate plans to obtain a prescription.
When asked about his long-term business plan, Massoumi said the site would be needed for a while, including globally.
“Right now, we are dealing with the problem of our generation. This is the world war of our generation and, within that war, this vaccine is the most scarce resource, ”said Massoumi.
“The entire world is not expected to be vaccinated until 2023 and … the 2,500 mutations that currently exist worldwide” may represent a continuing need for vaccines, said Massoumi.
Dr.B is run by a group of engineers who left Haven, the now defunct joint venture between Amazon (AMZN), Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) and JPMorgan (JPM). the combination to help provide alerts whenever a new website is opened or
GoodRx co-CEO Dough Hirsch recently told Yahoo Finance that he is also building a website, borrowing some of GoodRx’s engineers and dedicating them to the task.
“I am going to pause all the other work I am doing. I am going to focus on solving what we can do for this pandemic,” he said.
It is a significant rise as the company seeks to be a national nominating center, even after the CDC announced its vaccine location website.
“Today, everyone is talking about vaccine finder data, which is incredible, and we are a launch partner for them,” said Hirsch, adding that he is partnering with leading retail pharmacies and vaccine locations as well.
But some sites are not playing ball.
“The challenge, of course, is that the major drugstore chains, and we know them very well, are trying to ensure that their servers remain active and that no wrongdoers are infiltrating,” said Hirsch.
That is why even some of the smaller, independently administered appointment sites may have outdated information or may lack some information about vaccine appointments.
“But, I understand, the pharmacy chains are really busy trying to keep these things working and inject guns,” said Hirsch, adding that some pharmacies are working on ways for GoodRx to connect securely.
In addition to the large chains, independently administered mass vaccination sites can also be managed by third parties for consultation, so pursuing those and connecting to their systems in all 50 states plus territories is a gigantic task.
Hirsch noted that he is in contact with Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response Team, to find out how to help underserved communities as well.
“It was a really revealing conversation with Andy … because he continues to challenge us to find ways to reach these underserved communities,” said Hirsch.
Slavitt recently announced that the federal government is looking for low-tech options, including calls to some communities.
“Our audience is more than middle and low income [area], and I think we did a very good job – we have more than 10 years of history “of being able to reach individuals with less robust access to the Internet, Hirsch said.
That’s why another aspect of GoodRx’s efforts is combating vaccine hesitation, which will include information on the website about the various vaccines and the active sharing of information via text to users who provide cell phone numbers.
Hirsch noted that while this still leaves some of the population out of the loop, he expects it to include more people than just individuals with Internet experience.
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