Chile’s Fracción sells medication at a fraction of the price

Contxto – Fracción is a startup that wants to ensure that no medicine nor money goes to waste. To achieve this, it’s coaxing its network of independent Chilean pharmacies to buddy up with insurers and last-mile delivery apps.

From there, Fracción’s platform will display the pharmacies’ medicine to insured patients. These users, in turn, can buy the exact amount they need. And of course, the startup will broker the logistics of transporting the medication via delivery apps.

This healthtech’s leadership expects the agreements that are established with insurance companies to be effective as of March 2020. Which means any patients covered by these insurers can expect access to their medicine on Fracción with the use of their healthcare plan.

Besides making the most of partnerships with insurance companies and pharmacies, Fracción will be adding new perks to its platform such as a saving feature, so if a patient frequently buys a certain pill, Fracción will remember this and ease the purchasing process next time.

Entrepreneurs join forces for Fracción

Chileans Javier Vega and José Manuel Möller launched this healthtech in 2017. And each entrepreneur brings in their background to make medicine accessible for all and at a fair price.

Vega comes from a family that runs its own pharmaceuticals lab and thus has vast connections to multiple independent pharmacies in Chile.

Meanwhile, Möller is a familiar face in the Chilean startup scene. Some may recall he’s the founder of Algramo, a startup that distributes refills of basic products like detergent, while reducing plastic waste.

Medication at fair prices

Whenever a physician prescribes medication one is told to “follow the doctor’s orders,” as per the instructions on the prescription.

While the pharmacist interprets the crazy handwriting on the paper, as a consumer/patient one often feels dismayed at having to buy additional boxes of medicine in order to adhere to the designated doses.

Aware of this waste, Vega and Möller offer patients the option of buying the precise prescription doses on the healthtech’s platform.

All a user needs to do is upload the prescription onto the platform and from there, Fracción handles the logistics of getting the medication to the person within a day, if they live in Santiago. Should the patient live outside of the capital, the startup assures delivery by the next day.

It currently offers over 1,400 different medications on the platform.

This healthtech offers a notable social benefit for (almost) everyone involved. Patients save money and get what they need. While independent pharmacies become more competitive in the face of big chains by selling their products online.

Perhaps the only ones who don’t benefit are pharmaceuticals that now sell less bulk. But I doubt anyone is sorry about that.

-ML