一位藥劑師的創(chuàng)業(yè)之路

When Michael Rea started working as a pharmacist, he soon found all his customers asked the same question: why had their medicines become so expensive?

當(dāng)現(xiàn)年35歲的邁克爾•雷亞(Michael Rea)開始擔(dān)任藥劑師時(shí)，他很快就發(fā)現(xiàn)，所有客戶都在問同一個問題：為什么他們的藥變得這么貴?

The plight of one particular woman on eight different drugs — a 65-year-old diabetic with high blood pressure — prompted him to find answers.

一名65歲的女性患有糖尿病和高血壓，需要服用8種藥物，她的困境促使他去尋找答案。

“She asked me which two medications she should skip,” says Mr Rea, who in 2008 was working for Walgreens, the US pharmacy chain, in Kansas City. “She was making a matter-of-fact, life-or-death decision and wanted to know which drugs were the least important.”

“她問我應(yīng)該把哪兩種藥省掉，”雷亞說，“她正在做一件實(shí)事求是的、關(guān)乎生死的決定，她想知道哪些藥物是最不重要的。”2008年，雷亞在堪薩斯城的美國連鎖藥店沃爾格林(Walgreens)工作。

Mr Rea, now 35, could not in good conscience advise a patient to stop taking a medicine that might keep her alive. So he spent six-and-a-half hours working out how to save the customer money, eventually suggesting alternative drugs that worked in the same way but were less expensive.

出于良心，雷亞無法建議患者停止服用一種可能保她活命的藥物。所以他花了六個半小時(shí)算出如何讓這位客戶省錢，最后建議客戶服用藥效相同、但更便宜的替代性藥物。

His suggestions, he says, saved her $250 a month.

他說，他的建議每月幫這位女士節(jié)省250美元。

Mr Rea got a kick out of helping the patient, and found himself offering a similar service to other customers.

幫助這位患者，讓雷亞從中獲得了極大樂趣，于是他也為其他客戶提供類似的服務(wù)。

A month later, he set up his own company and website, Rx Savings Solutions, to help patients cut the amount they spend on medicines.

一個月后，他成立了自己的公司Rx Savings Solutions并設(shè)立網(wǎng)站，幫助患者減少他們的藥品花銷。

As well as suggesting cheaper alternatives, including generic versions, Mr Rea found customers could reduce outlay with simple tricks: two 5mg pills sometimes cost less than a 10mg one; tablets could be less expensive than capsules; and some pharmacies were cheaper than others.

除了推薦更便宜的替代藥品(包括仿制藥)，雷亞發(fā)現(xiàn)客戶可以通過簡單的技巧減少支出：有時(shí)兩枚5mg藥片的價(jià)格之和低于一枚10mg藥片;片劑可能比膠囊便宜;有些藥房比另一些藥房便宜。

Today the work that used to take Mr Rea several hours per patient is done in seconds by proprietary algorithms. The company’s desktop and mobile app is offered by US employers and insurers to more than 1m people.

通過專有算法，雷亞為每名患者花幾個小時(shí)完成的工作，如今只花幾秒就完成了。美國雇主和保險(xiǎn)公司向逾100萬人提供了該公司的桌面和手機(jī)應(yīng)用。

Patients tend to contribute to the cost of drugs out of their own pocket in the US, and they save by using the app to find cheaper alternatives. But so do their employers and insurers through lower overall healthcare costs.

在美國，患者往往自掏腰包支付一部分藥物費(fèi)用，他們使用該應(yīng)用尋找更便宜的替代品，達(dá)到了省錢目的。他們的雇主和保險(xiǎn)公司也通過降低總體醫(yī)療費(fèi)用來省錢。

For the first three years, Mr Rea ran the business while continuing to work as a pharmacist for Walgreens, although his interest in his day job was waning.

在最初3年里，雷亞一面繼續(xù)擔(dān)任沃爾格林的藥劑師，一面經(jīng)營這塊業(yè)務(wù)，但他對藥劑師工作的興趣在減弱。

“What became difficult was that it was very transaction based — it was just how many prescriptions can you churn out,” he says.

“讓事情變困難的是，這項(xiàng)業(yè)務(wù)非常依賴交易——完全與你可以開出多少處方有關(guān)，”他說。

Mr Rea quickly realised that for his start-up to make a significant impact it would have to sign up a large employer or health insurance plan that could offer its services to all its members.

雷亞很快意識到，若想讓他的創(chuàng)業(yè)企業(yè)產(chǎn)生重大影響，就必須簽一家大企業(yè)或一個醫(yī)療保險(xiǎn)計(jì)劃，好將服務(wù)提供給后者的所有成員。

During lunches and break times, Mr Rea would retreat to his car on a roof-top car park and hold conference calls with prospective customers. Eventually, in 2012, he signed Mutual of Omaha, an insurance company based in Nebraska. The contract gave him the confidence he needed to quit his job.

在午餐和休息時(shí)間，雷亞會回到他那輛停在屋頂停車場的車上，并與潛在客戶舉行電話會議。終于，他在2012年與內(nèi)布拉斯加州保險(xiǎn)公司Mutual of Omaha簽訂了合同。合同給了他辭掉藥劑師工作的信心。

But the deal with Mutual of Omaha failed because it was linked to the insurer’s ill-fated attempt to expand into healthcare. It was a sign of how an entrepreneur’s plans can hinge on the actions of a larger company.

但是，與Mutual of Omaha之間的交易失敗了，因?yàn)檫@家保險(xiǎn)公司擴(kuò)展進(jìn)入醫(yī)療保險(xiǎn)的努力未能成功。這表明，一位創(chuàng)業(yè)者計(jì)劃的成敗可能多么依賴于一家大公司的行動。

Mr Rea was left without an income for 16 months, during which he and his family had to survive on his wife’s attorney salary.

雷亞有16個月時(shí)間完全沒有收入，在此期間，他和家人不得不依靠妻子的律師工資生活。

“That was a difficult time, when I made the jump,” he recalls. “I had a small kid, and we had hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans.”

“我跨出這一步時(shí)，我們處于艱難時(shí)刻，”他回憶道，“我有一個小孩，我們有幾十萬美元的學(xué)生貸款。”

Mr Rea’s friends, many of them pharmacists, encouraged him to return to his old profession. “They were saying, ‘You’re insane, why would you leave this stable, well-paid job?’

雷亞的朋友們——其中很多是藥劑師——鼓勵他回到原來的職業(yè)。“他們說，‘你瘋了，為什么要離開這個穩(wěn)定、薪酬不錯的工作?’”

“I did consider that for a while and at some point would have probably gone back to it,” he says, but he worried that he might have to sign a non-disclosure agreement that could make it harder to grow his company.

“我確實(shí)為此考慮了一段時(shí)間，在某一刻，我差一點(diǎn)兒就回去了，”他說。但他擔(dān)心，他可能不得不簽署一份保密協(xié)議，該協(xié)議可能使他更難發(fā)展他的公司。

But in 2013, Mr Rea raised $1.2m from wealthy investors in Kansas City and subsequently went on to secure a further $3.7m from another group of rich individuals. The company’s investors include Dan Henry, a veteran of fintech companies such as NetSpend and Euronet.

但在2013年，雷亞從堪薩斯城的富有投資者手中籌集了120萬美元，隨后又從另一群富人手中籌資370萬美元。該公司的投資者包括丹•亨利(Dan Henry)，他是NetSpend和Euronet等金融科技企業(yè)的資深人士。

Mr Rea was introduced to early investors by his mentor, Drew Komenda, who eventually left his job in sales at Johnson & Johnson, the healthcare group, to join Rx Savings’ board and become its chief revenue officer.

雷亞是被他的導(dǎo)師德魯•柯曼達(dá)(Drew Komenda)介紹給早期投資者，柯曼達(dá)最終辭掉了在醫(yī)療集團(tuán)強(qiáng)生(Johnson&Johnson)銷售部的工作，加入Rx Savings董事會，成為公司的首席營收官。

Mr Komenda had been looking for a new challenge after J&J, and his next-door neighbour knew Mr Rea, whom he said had a good idea for a business but needed help with sales.

柯曼達(dá)在離開強(qiáng)生后一直在尋找新的挑戰(zhàn)，而他的鄰居認(rèn)識雷亞。這位鄰居跟柯曼達(dá)說，雷亞有個創(chuàng)業(yè)的好主意，但需要人幫他打理銷售業(yè)務(wù)。

Today Rx Savings employs 35 people in its head office in Kansas City and Mr Rea says he is “always in fundraising mode” so the business can expand more quickly.

如今，Rx Savings在堪薩斯城的總部雇用了35名員工，而雷亞表示他“一直處于籌資模式”，以便公司能更快地?cái)U(kuò)張。

Clients of Rx Savings include Sprint, the large mobile phone network and Berkshire Hathaway Media, the US newspaper group controlled by billionaire Warren Buffett, as well as a string of public sector employers.

Rx Savings的客戶包括大型移動網(wǎng)絡(luò)運(yùn)營商Sprint和億萬富翁沃倫•巴菲特(Warren Buffett)控股的美國報(bào)業(yè)集團(tuán)伯克希爾哈撒韋傳媒(Berkshire Hathaway Media)，以及一些公共部門的雇主。

One customer, the State of Kansas, says it saved $7.5m last year thanks to changes suggested by Mr Rea’s company to its employees via the app.

其中一家客戶——堪薩斯州政府——表示，由于雷亞的公司通過應(yīng)用向其雇員提出的藥品變更建議，去年州政府節(jié)省了750萬美元。

Rx Savings tries to win business by offering to perform a retrospective analysis of a company’s health insurance claims, using its algorithms to work out how much money would have been saved if the client had been using its service all along.

Rx Savings嘗試對一家公司的醫(yī)療保險(xiǎn)索賠進(jìn)行回顧性分析(即用算法計(jì)算出，如果客戶一直使用其服務(wù)，本來可以節(jié)省多少錢)，來贏得業(yè)務(wù)。

If a company signs up, they pay a nominal fixed fee each month for every member covered by the Rx Savings service.

如果一家公司與Rx Savings簽約，他們會在每月為后者的服務(wù)所覆蓋的每名成員支付一筆名義固定費(fèi)用。

“When we do the opportunity assessments we find anywhere from 22 to 25 per cent of the money being spent on drugs could be saved,” says Mr Rea.

雷亞表示：“我們在進(jìn)行機(jī)會評估時(shí)發(fā)現(xiàn)，可以節(jié)省22%至25%的購藥資金。”

If that kind of saving were applied to the roughly $450bn spent on prescription medicines in the US each year, it would equate to a saving of more than $100bn, Mr Rea says.

雷亞表示，目前美國每年的處方藥費(fèi)用大約是4500億美元，如果按這一節(jié)約比例計(jì)算，那么其中逾1000億美元可以節(jié)約下來。

Others are not so sure. Dr Peter Bach, an expert in drug pricing at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, says it would be difficult to find such a saving without “very large price concessions” from drugmakers. “I don’t know where you would find $100bn,” he says.

其他人對此不太確定。紐約的紀(jì)念斯隆凱特琳癌癥中心(Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)的藥物定價(jià)專家彼得•巴赫(Peter Bach)博士說，如果制藥企業(yè)不做出“非常大的價(jià)格讓步”，這么大幅度的節(jié)約就難以實(shí)現(xiàn)。“我不知道你會在哪里省出1000億美元，”他說。

President Donald Trump, who has promised to repeal and replace President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, recently admitted to having had no idea healthcare could be “so complicated”.

美國總統(tǒng)唐納德•特朗普(Donald Trump)曾承諾廢除并取代前總統(tǒng)巴拉克•奧巴馬(Barack Obama)的《平價(jià)醫(yī)療法》(Affordable Care Act)。不久前，特朗普承認(rèn)，他沒想到醫(yī)療問題可能會“如此復(fù)雜”。

“The only thing that can unwind the complexity is revealing information to those paying the bill,” says Mr Rea.

“唯一可以化解復(fù)雜性的方法，是把信息披露給支付賬單的人，”雷亞說。

Castlight Health, a San Francisco-based group, also promises to lower people’s healthcare costs, although it focuses on procedures like operations rather than the price of drugs.

總部位于舊金山的Castlight Health公司也承諾降低人們的醫(yī)療花銷，不過其發(fā)力點(diǎn)是手術(shù)等環(huán)節(jié)，而不是藥物價(jià)格。

The growth of Rx Savings has coincided with a big shift in US healthcare. The price of medicine has soared, and employers and insurers are asking individuals to shoulder a greater share of the cost.

Rx Savings業(yè)務(wù)的增長恰逢美國醫(yī)療行業(yè)的重大轉(zhuǎn)變。藥價(jià)飆升，雇主和保險(xiǎn)公司要求個人承擔(dān)更高比例的費(fèi)用。

Almost 50 per cent of Americans are now insured in “high-deductible” plans, which means they must pay an excess of several thousand dollars out of their own pocket towards healthcare before their insurance picks up the tab.

如今，近50%的美國人參加了“高自付額”的醫(yī)療保險(xiǎn)計(jì)劃，這意味著，他們必須自己多支付數(shù)千美元看病，然后才會由保險(xiǎn)公司替他們付賬。

Mr Rea points out that some consumers have deductibles of as much as $5,000 — “a number most people will never get to”.

雷亞指出，有些消費(fèi)者的免賠額高達(dá)5000美元——這是“絕大多數(shù)人永遠(yuǎn)不會達(dá)到的金額”。

“What they can do is put tools like us in place to help them manage it, to help them keep away from the $5,000,” he says.

“他們可以做的就是，使用我們這樣的工具，幫他們管理這個問題，幫他們花不到5000美元，”他說。

But Mr Rea says the company needs to raise its profile.

但雷亞表示，他的公司需要提升形象。

“That’s our number one issue as a company: we do this work and the clients we have speak very highly of the results,” he says. “The problem is most of the nation doesn’t know we exist.”

“這是我們公司的第一大問題：我們做了這項(xiàng)工作，我們的客戶們對結(jié)果給了很高評價(jià)，”他說，“問題是國內(nèi)的大部分人不知道我們的存在。”

Now Mr Rea spends most of his time doing just that, on the road pitching to clients, and at healthcare conferences, where he tries to raise awareness of the business. A trio of executives based at the group’s Kansas City offices look after operations, finance and technology from day to day.

現(xiàn)在，雷亞的大部分時(shí)間都在做這件事——在向客戶推介公司的路上、在醫(yī)療大會上——他在努力提高公司的知名度。公司堪薩斯城總部的三位高管負(fù)責(zé)日常的運(yùn)營、財(cái)務(wù)和技術(shù)。

For now, Rx Savings has no direct competitors, says Mr Rea, and he has no plans to take the company public or to sell it, adding there is “far too much work to do”.

雷亞表示，現(xiàn)在Rx Savings沒有直接競爭對手，他也不打算將公司上市或賣掉。他補(bǔ)充道，眼下還有“太多工作要做”。

“There are some real advantages to being private,” he says. “We can make decisions in a boardroom in 10 minutes to meet the needs of a client.”

“非上市公司具有一些真正的優(yōu)勢，”他說，“我們用10分鐘就可以在董事會議室做出決定，以滿足客戶的需求。”

“What really makes the company tick is the feedback we get from members,” he says. “I just think that if you can keep the focus on that, then you don’t have to worry about meeting an investor’s expectations.”

他說：“真正讓公司運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)起來的，是我們從用戶那里獲得的反饋，”他說 ，“我認(rèn)為，如果你能持續(xù)關(guān)注這一點(diǎn)，那么就不用擔(dān)心會辜負(fù)投資者的期望。”