Uncontrolled Substances, Part 2: Adderall

The Journal.

The Wall Street Journal

News, Daily News, Business News

4.2 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 December 2022

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After some early struggles, Cerebral hit on a lucrative new avenue for growth: prescribing controlled substances. WSJ’s Rolfe Winkler investigates how one tightly regulated medicine – Adderall – became crucial to Cerebral’s business. Some former employees take us inside the move into controlled substances and describe feeling pressured by the company to prescribe regulated medications. Cerebral denies pressuring employees and says it has helped many people get access to much-needed care. Further Reading: - Startup Cerebral Soared on Easy Adderall Prescriptions. That Was Its Undoing. - Startups Make It Easier to Get ADHD Drugs. That Made Some Workers Anxious. Further Listening: - The Journal: Uncontrolled Substances, Part 1: Subscribe and Prescribe - Science Vs: Adderall: What's It Doing to Your Brain? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, it's Kate.
0:02.7	This is the second episode of uncontrolled substances, the cerebral story.
0:08.2	Episode 1 came out last Friday.
0:10.2	If you haven't listened yet, start there.
0:12.5	It's already in your feed.
0:21.7	From the jump, cerebral had lots of people signing up.
0:25.5	Too many patients were canceling their subscriptions before cerebral could make a profit.
0:31.6	So CEO Kyle Robertson and his team had to find other ways to grow.
0:36.7	And they found it.
0:38.2	Controlled substances.
0:42.2	In the early days of the pandemic, the government paused a federal law for prescribing tightly regulated
0:47.6	medications like Xanax and Ambia.
0:51.0	Previously, patients had to go see a doctor in person to get these drugs.
0:56.5	But in March 2020, it became legal to prescribe these medications online.
1:02.2	Just last week, the DEA announced new guidelines allowing controls substances to be prescribed
1:07.4	via video while Medicare expanding coverage.
1:10.8	What did this change mean for cerebral?
1:14.0	For cerebral and metagrophotunity.
1:18.2	Our colleague, Ralph Winkler, has seen internal documents where the company laid out this growth
1:23.2	opportunity.
1:24.9	Cerebral is listing controlled substances in its pitch deck for investors.
1:29.4	It has a slide and a presentation that we reviewed.
	...

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