Ever a cradle of innovation, San Francisco spawned a number of startups in recent years specializing in writing prescriptions for ADHD and other mental illnesses completely online, but this niche segment appears to be imploding in recent days.
Cerebral, the mental health telemedicine sector's largest player, is stopping prescribing controlled substances like Adderall and Ritalin to treat ADHD, according to a blog post by the company's CEO Kyle Robertson. This came just days after the company's largest pharmacy partner Truepill stopped fulfilling prescriptions for ADHD and weeks after Ahead, a competitor to Cerebral backed by Truepill, shut down completely.
This marks a stark retreat by the mental health telemedicine industry which grew precipitously during the pandemic thanks to aggressive social media advertising campaigns and a temporary rollback of restrictions that prevented doctors from providing controlled substances on telemedicine.
The sector has drawn ire from the media and public due to companies like Cerebral writing prescriptions for controlled substances like Adderall with as little patient interaction as a 30 minute Zoom call, and drew comparisons to the malicious actors that spurred the opioid pandemic by supercharging prescriptions to addictive medications.
Another S.F. company, Done, which focuses solely on ADHD still appears to be prescribing Adderall, but it has been having trouble getting its prescriptions filled at major pharmacies like Walmart, CVS and Walgreens, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Cerebral, a company valued at $4.8 billion, is coming off an especially tough week of news after one of its former VPs alleged in a lawsuit they were overprescribing ADHD medication and were negligent about their compliance duties.
Compounding on its difficulties, a report by Business Insider said that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency had interviewed two former Cerebral employees according to anonymous sources. The DEA themselves would not confirm or deny whether the company was under investigation.
The company today announced a shake up of its C-suite and a promise to set up a clinical review board to assess all future ads. Its chief medical officer Dr David Mou was promoted to president, while its CFO Margaret Miller, Chief Financial Officer is resigning.
