Alchemy, a company that helps develop and scale in-house pharmacy programs focused on HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) patient populations, announced it closed $31 million in seed financing led by Andreessen Horowitz ("a16z") Bio + Health.

Professional basketball player turned investor Earvin "Magic" Johnson participated in the round alongside Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners, Banc of California and existing investors Twine Ventures, Springbank and AlleyCorp. 

WHAT IT DOES

San Francisco-based Alchemy, founded in 2023, offers services to organizations to build in-house pharmacies for Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), Ryan White and STD clinics. 

The company provides the infrastructure to develop, operate and scale in-house pharmacy programs and helps organizations deploy the technology to ensure patients can access the pharmacy program.

The team that founded the company has spent 18 years working in Africa building HIV access programs and has set up and scaled pharmacies that have dispensed prescription medications throughout the U.S. 

"Investing in Alchemy is deeply personal, not only as a person living with HIV but because I’ve witnessed firsthand the devastating impacts of HIV in our communities. Alchemy's commitment to eliminating barriers to care and serving the underserved is a mission I'm proud to support,” Johnson, chairman and CEO at Magic Johnson Enterprises, said in a statement. 

Jay Rughani, an investment partner at Andreessen Horowitz, expressed a16z's excitement in backing Alchemy as the company "expands access to life-saving medications for underserved communities."

"Alchemy empowers clinics with the physical, clinical and digital infrastructure they need to fully serve their patient communities effectively and sustainably. With Alchemy’s pharmacy operating system and managed services platform, clinics can fulfill medication prescriptions as part of their care model, providing comprehensive and convenient care to their patients," Rughani said in a LinkedIn post. 

MARKET SNAPSHOT

According to HIV.gov, at the end of 2023, 77% of individuals with HIV (30.7 million people) had access to antiretroviral therapy (ART) globally, meaning 23% of individuals still lacked HIV treatment access. 

The global target, per UNAIDS, is for 95% of people diagnosed with HIV to initiate treatment by 2025 and 95% of those individuals to achieve and maintain HIV viral suppression. Organizations say access to treatment is the key to reaching those global targets. 

Another company working to improve access to HIV testing and treatment is San Francisco-based Nurx. 

The direct-to-consumer digital health platform offers HIV testing and access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), a daily pill for individuals at high risk of exposure to HIV who do not have HIV that can help prevent infection.

People can also access post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), a medicine that may prevent HIV infection after possible exposure to HIV.