After spending several years in the San Francisco Bay Area as a consultant for a pharmaceutical distributor, GraphiteRx Founder and CEO David Zilberman resolved to tackle some crucial challenges facing the healthcare industry: high distribution costs and limited access to critical medications. Many small- to medium-sized pharmaceutical manufacturers sell their products outside of a primary wholesaler to reduce the fees they pay and build stronger relationships with their customers. But in doing so, it complicates the process of ordering those products directly from suppliers, which happens via phone, fax, email, and multiple online portals.
David envisioned a marketplace platform that could modernize and simplify the healthcare supply chain. Leveraging contemporary technologies, GraphiteRx enables manufacturers to radically reduce distribution fees compared to traditional channels while improving access to medications and healthcare supplies for hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics. David visited Nashville often while working with a leading local health system as an early design partner for GraphiteRx. After raising initial venture capital in September 2019, despite living most of his life in the San Francisco Bay Area and Israel, both hotbeds for startups and innovation, David chose to establish the company’s headquarters in Nashville, TN. Music City beat other tech hubs like Austin, Dallas, and Boulder due to the city’s diverse healthcare talent, growing tech scene, and entrepreneurial spirit. People here were also genuinely friendly and helpful, which became very apparent when a tornado ripped through the city in February 2020 and hit the company’s first office in East Nashville.
Two years later, the company has hundreds of hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics, including a number of the top 25 US health systems. These customers use GraphiteRx to manage complex purchasing processes for lifesaving medications and critical supplies from hundreds of manufacturers and distributors. In addition to providing better access to limited distribution drugs (like oncology medications), shortage drugs, and cost-savings opportunities, GraphiteRx allows buyers to be more efficient, freeing up their time so they can focus on higher-value activities.
Building on the success of its initial product, GraphiteRx is now expanding its platform capabilities to enable suppliers to serve healthcare providers better. The company is defining a new category for healthcare distribution to improve access to and reduce the cost and complexity of healthcare. GraphiteRx believes that a scalable marketplace model–versus traditional wholesale distribution–can also help level the playing field and drive competition in the healthcare supply chain.
David and the GraphiteRx team are proud to be part of Nashville’s health tech innovation story.
