Nurx, a San Francisco-based telemedicine startup that sells prescription drugs online, will make its services available to Iowa residents.
The announcement comes following an April 26 New York Times report that alleged the company's sale and shipment practices have put its customers at risk. Nine former Nurx employees claim the company has continually ignored or violated state and federal laws relating to the sale and shipment of prescription medication since it was founded in 2015.
Nurx sells prescription drugs, including birth control, HIV PrEP, an HPV home test kit and emergency contraception, online and through the company's mobile application. Nurx then fills and ships the prescription drugs to the customer's home. The company is launching its services in Iowa because the state has more than 170,000 women who live in "contraception deserts," or areas without health clinics that provide birth control options, according to the company's May 14 blog post.
In the NYT report, one former employee claimed Nurx sometimes required him to send birth control pills that had bounced back in the mail to other customers. The company's former medical director, Jessica Knox, MD, told the publication that Nurx executives had asked her to alter company policy that advised physicians not to prescribe certain types of birth control pills to women over the age of 35 who smoked, according to the report.
"There are no excuses for mistakes made by our former leadership team," Nurx said in a company statement provided to the Times. Nurx also said it had changed many of its previous policies and practices and brought on numerous new executives.