ScriptDrop Leverages Blockchain To Combat $300 Billion Cost of Prescription Drug Abandonment

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When healthcare patients don’t take their prescribed medications, it not only harms their health but also costs U.S. taxpayers in the form of expensive medical procedures and pharmaceutical waste that jacks up drug prices.

While working at the Ohio-based health tech startup CoverMyMeds, Nick Potts and Larry Scott discovered that prescription abandonment and failure to adhere to medication regimens costs the country $300 billion and 125,000 deaths every year. Conversations with physicians and pharmacists informed them that the biggest difficulties are simply getting patients to pick up their medications and take them as prescribed.

The pair founded ScriptDrop in 2016 to address these issues. To make it easier for patients to get their medications, ScriptDrop delivers prescriptions to their door rather than have them visit the pharmacy for pickup. And to ensure they actually take their meds as directed, ScriptDrop offers a virtual assistant product that reminds patients when it’s time for their next dose while tracking their compliance.

Both products gather valuable information on patient behavior, and ScriptDrop is leveraging blockchain technology to integrate all that data and create “adherence profiles” for each individual. In November, the company plans to launch an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) that will take its platform to the next level. As part of the ICO, ScriptDrop will introduce digital tokens to reward patients for medication adherence and help reduce costs for both individuals and pharmaceutical companies.

ScriptDrop’s platform could be a game-changer in the battle to keep Americans on their meds , and it all works by bringing cutting-edge blockchain technology to the healthcare space.

Increasing Medication Adherence Through Data Sharing and Patient Incentives

Blockchain technology has huge potential for healthcare because it can help maintain accurate patient information across many care providers, but poor incentives for sharing data have so far prevented blockchain from making a big impact.

ScriptDrop’s medication reminder product changes this by providing a channel for patients to self-report their drug behaviors. The virtual assistant sends regular reminders via phone, text, email, or through several other integrations, and patients are asked to confirm whether they have taken their medications. They may also consent to give their physicians and pharmacy access to this information, which can be used to anticipate patient behavior, identify issues with non-adherence and reduce drug waste.

But what incentives do patients have to use the medication reminder platform? That’s where the tokens come into play, which act as a form of currency that patients earn by interacting with the platform and taking their prescriptions as directed. Patients can then cash in their tokens to have ScriptDrop pay for a portion of the co-pay on their next prescription.

Pharmaceutical companies also have a stake in the system, as they benefit financially from better medication adherence. These organizations actually pay for ScriptDrop through partnerships that allow pharmacies and patients to use the service free of charge. In return, they’re allowed to ask patients for access to their data and will also be able to reward patient loyalty with purchased tokens following the ScripDrop’s ICO.

Building a Cheaper, Tech-Powered Future for Healthcare

ScriptDrop is a young company, but it has already made substantial progress with its unifying mission of lower healthcare costs for all parties. It’s prescription delivery service is currently active in New York and Chicago, and the team hopes to soon expand to Cleveland and Columbus, OH. Partnerships with BestRx and Updox are already helping ScriptDrop integrate directly into pharmacy software and share patient data with pharmacies and physicians across the country.

However, the medication reminder product is still in beta at this time. The information gathered through this channel is the key to the entire system, so the ScriptDrop team will need to get this part of the platform up and running smoothly if they hope to scale the business. Additionally, expanding their network of much-needed pharmaceutical sponsors will likely be a time-consuming affair.

ScriptDrop has a financial cushion in the form of $1 million seed funding from Rev1 Ventures, M25 Group and Jumpstart Foundry, and it hopes to earn additional operating capital during its ICO in November. ScriptDrop will be selling 410 million tokens to pharmaceutical companies at 7–9¢ each, with a funding goal of $17.5 million.

Prescription abandonment and medication non-adherence are expensive, persistent healthcare problems that desperately need to be solved. If ScriptDrop can drive a successful token sale, finalize its medication reminder product and continue to partner with sponsoring pharmaceutical companies, then its innovative solution could help save a lot of wasted drugs, money, and maybe even lives.

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