{"id":182606,"date":"2025-10-01T13:21:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T13:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/182606\/"},"modified":"2025-10-01T13:21:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-01T13:21:10","slug":"canadian-virtual-pharmacy-purposemed-expands-freddie-hiv-treatment-to-all-50-u-s-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/182606\/","title":{"rendered":"Canadian virtual pharmacy PurposeMed expands Freddie HIV treatment to all 50 U.S. states"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Husein Moloo, co-founder of Canadian virtual pharmacy PurposeMed, in Calgary on Monday.Todd Korol\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n

Calgary-based virtual pharmacy PurposeMed is completing its U.S. expansion this month, bringing its popular Freddie service for HIV prevention and treatment to all 50 states.<\/p>\n

PurposeMed, which was founded in early 2020, launched Freddie in Canada that July. The service \u2013 named after the late rock singer Freddie Mercury \u2013 virtually connects patients with nurses or nurse practitioners, guides them through lab tests and, if they are given a prescription, ships the drug to a home or a local pharmacy for pickup.<\/p>\n

The main prescription the service offers is a daily antiretroviral pill known as pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, that can substantially lower the risk of contracting HIV. Tests for other sexually transmitted infections can also be conducted.<\/p>\n

John Gardiner, PurposeMed\u2019s chief growth officer, said Freddie has so far dispensed PrEP to more than 30,000 Canadians, which he estimates would be more than half of all those in Canada who take PrEP.<\/p>\n

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Mr. Gardiner said Freddie currently has 13,500 patients who are actively taking PrEP and the company is on track to add twice as many new U.S. patients each month as Canadians.<\/p>\n

HIV diagnoses have increased in recent years in Canada. About 2,400 Canadians were newly diagnosed in 2023, the most recent year for which data<\/a> are available, according to the Public Health Agency of Canada. That was a 35-per-cent increase in new cases over the year before. <\/p>\n

Of the new diagnoses, 39 per cent were transmitted through heterosexual sex, 36 per cent through male-to-male sexual contact and 18 per cent through injection drug use.<\/p>\n

Caley Shukalek, a physician and the chief medical officer of PurposeMed, said the company\u2019s goal is to use virtual services to fill gaps in care and increase access for people who need it.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, HIV, sexual health, all of these things continue to be stigmatized in our current day and age, both in Canada and the U.S.,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd there\u2019s also the fact that some providers just don\u2019t feel comfortable working in this area. I wish they did. I\u2019d have a lot less work to do, but it\u2019s just the reality of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

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In the U.S., about 1.2 million people have HIV and 31,800 were diagnosed in 2022, which was down from previous years, according to government statistics<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Freddie launched in the U.S. starting with Virginia in February of 2024, and slowly expanded to a few more states by the end of the year. <\/p>\n

In the U.S., the company works with non-profit organizations to supply patients with medication at a discount through a long-time federal initiative called the 340B drug pricing program.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, the service is available in all 50 states through a partnership with the American Sexual Health Association.<\/p>\n

Amaan Banwait, chief commercial officer of PurposeMed, said nearly 70 per cent of the people who sign up with Freddie have never taken PrEP before. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a stat that we\u2019re really proud of in terms of us growing access to HIV prevention,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr. Banwait co-founded PurposeMed along with Husein Moloo and Pete MacLeod. <\/p>\n

In Canada, Freddie works with non-profits and public health groups to offer in-person services in some cities, including Calgary, Saskatoon and Toronto.<\/p>\n

PurposeMed also runs a virtual mental-health service called Frida, which specializes in ADHD diagnosis and treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Husein Moloo, co-founder of Canadian virtual pharmacy PurposeMed, in Calgary on Monday.Todd Korol\/The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":182607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[49,48,84,392,6347],"class_list":{"0":"post-182606","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-ne-i"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=182606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/182606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/182607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=182606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=182606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=182606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}