3 minute read
Rx Redux
Eliza Sternlicht ’18 cofounds a drug redistribution company to connect patients with prescriptions.
Treatment plans for cancer are so frequently adjusted that more than 40 percent of patients will have unfinished prescriptions during or following treatment, creating nearly $5.9 billion in wasted medication. Eliza Sternlicht ’18 learned about the volume of waste occurring in cancer care and knew she had to address the issue.
As a student at Brown University, Sternlicht and classmate Jack Schaeffer founded MediCircle, a drug redistribution company that connects cancer patients with unused medications. Today she serves as the company’s chief operating officer.
“We collect medications directly from patients whose treatment plans were adjusted due to things such as adverse reactions or disease progression, then recertify those medications using our three-step patented process,” she explains. “We then redistribute the medications to patients who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford it for a flat dispensing fee of $20.”
This is hardly Sternlicht’s first effort to create equity in medicine. As a student at Kimball Union, she used the school’s 3-D printers to produce prosthetic hands for children.
“Prosthetics can cost thousands, and because children grow quickly that means they often are forced to go without limbs because they would have to replace them so frequently,” Sternlicht recalls. “It baffled me how something as indispensable as a limb could be something people can’t access. KUA was a huge supporter in helping me have the resources and funding to pursue that project, and that’s how I became interested in biomedical engineering.
MediCircle took shape during Sternlicht’s sophomore year as a biomedical engineering student at Brown; she surveyed numerous healthcare facilities about their practices and found that wasted medication is a pervasive problem. She began drafting and patenting a medication-recertification process.
Recertification has been legalized in 41 states, including Texas, where MediCircle is based and where Sternlicht was involved in amending regulations through the Texas State Board of Pharmacy to allow the process. Additionally, Texas has the highest rates of uninsured people in the nation, according to U.S. census data. “By starting in Texas, we’re able to maximize how many people we can help within a single state before we start expanding,” she says.
“About 63 percent of cancer patients I spoke with reported cost as a barrier to care,” Sternlicht adds. “Some of the medications we distribute have an average retail price of $10,000 to $15,000. The patients we help are able to focus on getting better rather than on the expense of treatment, and when I hear their stories, it inspires me to put in long hours and make it happen.” K
