Deliv, the crowdsourced same-day delivery service company, launched same-day delivery of prescription drugs on Thursday (Feb. 8).
According to a report in TechCrunch, the new service, called Deliv Rx, will be the same-day delivery service for some Walgreens stores as well as Kay Pharmacy, Phil, Phox Health, Rancho Park and others. In the crowded prescription drug delivery marketplace, Deliv is looking to partner with other providers to provide the delivery component of their bigger businesses. The company has already forged partnerships with Phil and Phox Health.
“Deliv is not an eCommerce site, it’s not a marketplace, it’s not a store and it’s not an app looking to manage prescriptions,” CEO Daphne Carmeli told TechCrunch. “Deliv is purely a crowdsourced base, last-mile delivery service. Think of [it] as a local UPS without the planes and warehouses. We are an asset-free logistics provider.”
Deliv also aspires to help smaller pharmacies better compete with bigger drug store chains and retailers. According to the report, there are 67,000 pharmacies in the U.S., half of which are independent.
Deliv Rx will generate revenue by charging a delivery fee that is negotiated up-front. The pharmacy then decides what it wants to charge customers for the delivery to gain back the fee it paid to Deliv Rx. The pharmacies will also be able to choose delivery windows within a one- to three-hour range.
TechCrunch noted that there is a big market for same-day delivery of prescription drugs. It was predicted that customers would spend $360.1 billion on prescription medicine in 2017, and that is projected to reach $610 billion by 2021, Deliv said in the report.
“Waiting for a prescription when you’re in a hurry is annoying, but waiting for it when you really need it is simply unacceptable,” Carmeli said. “Deliv Rx enables pharmacies to be there for their customers in the best way at the most critical time. By extending a highly sought after, value-added service, pharmacies build brand loyalty while also ensuring that the integrity of prescriptions remains intact.”