Ro has launched a tracking platform showing real time availability and stock of glucagon-like peptide agonists across pharmacies, the telehealth company said Wednesday.
The tracker takes user-reported data from patients and providers who have found GLP-1s in their area, alerting local users to a drug's availability. The direct-to-consumer telehealth company designed the tracker to help patients and providers find GLP-1s during the shortage of drugs including Wegovy, Ozempic and others.
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The platform also alerts users to which drugs or dosages are out of stock, allows them to notify the Food and Drug Administration of shortages and sign up for alerts when drugs are back in stock.
Ro said its tracker may be an alternative to relying on the FDA's drug shortage list, as that list only includes drugs by active ingredient and not brand name.
The FDA's list also does not show shortages by area or demand, so a drug may be listed as in stock according to the FDA but access issues could persist based on patients' location. This can cause issues for providers who need to decide which drug to prescribe and are unable to find updated information on what drugs are available, according to Ro CEO Zachariah Reitano.
The New York City-based platform said it made more than 50,000 calls to pharmacies between July and August 2023 to check on the supply status of GLP-1s. That proved to be ineffective, according to the company.
"There's been so little communication about the status of the shortage from the manufacturers from the FDA, individual pharmacies don't have all of the updated information either, and so they can't communicate that to patients themselves," said Dr. Beverly Tchang, Ro advisor and assistant professor of clinical medicine at New York City-based Weill Cornell Medicine.
Companies offering GLP-1s have been navigating shortages since March 2022, according to data from the FDA. Reitano said in January the company, which launched its weight loss program last January, began recovering from a previous mass shortage in 2023 towards the end of the year, though shortages continue.
Despite this, a growing number of digital health companies including WeightWatchers, Teladoc and Noom have rushed to offer telehealth weight-loss services. Last week Hims & Hers announced it would offer a treatment with the same active ingredient as Wegovy.
