Walgreens, Doordash, Uber Partner to Improve HIV Medication Access

Walgreens, DoorDash, and Uber today announced a partner program to provide free, same-day prescription delivery of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and antiretroviral medications for the prevention and treatment of HIV.

The Same Day Rx Delivery program is available to eligible patients within 15 miles of one of thousands of participating Walgreens retail pharmacies in the United States. Eligible patients are those who have a prescription for PrEP or antiretroviral medication from a health care provider.

“While most of the U.S. population lives within five miles of a Walgreens pharmacy, transportation remains a critical barrier to accessing healthcare,” said Kevin Ban, MD, chief medical officer of Walgreens, in a statement. “With more than half of Walgreens stores located in socially vulnerable or underserved communities, we can help make HIV prevention and treatment options more accessible, convenient and equitable across our communities.”

This announcement of the same-day HIV medication delivery service also comes 6 months after the White House released the updated National HIV/AIDS strategy, supporting the strategy’s aim for a more coordinated, re-energized national response to HIV.

Some targets of the strategy include a 75% reduction in new HIV infections by 2025, and a 90% reduction by 2030. To hit these targets, the strategy focuses on 4 main goals:

• prevent new HIV infections
• improve HIV-related health outcomes of people living with HIV
• reduce HIV-related health disparities and inequities
• achieve integrated, coordinated efforts to address the HIV epidemic

According to Elizabeth Jarvis-Shean, vice president of communications and policy at DoorDash, local delivery is an important factor in improving medication access.

“Transportation barriers and other challenges can prevent people from accessing the medicine they need,” she said. “Our partnership with Walgreens helps ensure that people aren’t denied lifesaving medication just because they can’t make it to their local pharmacy.”

Julia Paige, head of global social impact at Uber, added that the partnership will help reduce these transportation and other access barriers so that patients—especially underserved populations—can get their HIV prescription delivered to their door at no extra cost.

This is not the first time the 3 companies have worked together in the health care space. In December 2022, following a White House call to action on COVID-19, the 3 companies launched free Paxlovid delivery services to increase access to COVID-19 treatment. The initiative focused on reaching individuals living in socially vulnerable or medically underserved areas.