Report: GoodRx Files For IPO

GoodRx Inc., the Santa Monica, Calif.-based prescription drug price-comparison company, plans to go public.

Reuters reported the online company has filed for a potential initial public offering with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Just two years ago, the startup was valued at $2.8 billion when Silver Lake, the Menlo Park, Calif., technology private equity firm, invested in it. The company is hiring advisers for the IPO, sources told the news service.

If successful, the listing could come later this year or early in 2021, one of the sources said.

Founded by Doug Hirsch and Trevor Bezdek in 2011, GoodRx gathers drug prices on more than 70,000 U.S. pharmacies for shoppers to compare and track drug prices, according to its website. In addition, it offers discount coupons to consumers. It makes money by charging fees to pharmacy benefits managers who partner with it.

Every month, the company’s website is viewed by more than 10 million Americans who seek the lowest prices for prescription drugs, according to GoodRx.

Last fall, the company expanded into healthcare services with the acquisition of HeyDoctor, the telemedicine company, for an undisclosed price. With the purchase, GoodRx renamed the telemedicine service as GoodRx Care.

Starting at $20, the service provides patients with an online medical visit from a board-certified medical professional to get treatment, prescriptions and lab tests for routine medical issues, the company said.

Earlier this year, PYMNTS reported ePharmacy companies were taking aim at high drug prices. In addition to GoodRx, companies including Blink Health and Ro and have worked to reduce prices.

A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that among those taking prescription drugs, 24 percent said they can’t afford their prescriptions. Three in 10, or 29 percent, reported not taking their medicines as prescribed in the past year because of the cost — and one in 10, or 8 percent, said their condition worsened as a result.

Blink Health CEO Geoffrey Chaiken said the ePharmacy model needs to succeed where the government can’t.

“At Blink, we’re not going to wait for the government to solve this problem,” he said.

Ro, under its Roman Digital Health Clinic for men, launched a health site called Health Guide. The company said the new service is designed to compete with the likes of WebMD and Google searches.

“We created Health Guide to fulfill one of Roman’s guiding principles: to meet patients at eye level,” the Roman Health Guide team wrote on its welcome announcement.