Altrui Foundation
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Altrui Foundation is an organization dedicated towards changing the lives of those in communities in need. They look to tackle the world's most pressing needs through innovative solutions. Their goal is to make a lasting impact in both the pharmaceutical industry and the education system through their innovative grassroots initiatives, in which they hope to aid and provide resources to underserved communities, as well as solve the concerns of today’s era.
Founders[edit]
Shreya Kavuru[edit]
Sourish Jasti[edit]
Rahul Kavuru[edit]
Advisory Board[edit]
Tyler Wry[edit]
Tyler is a Wharton School professor[1] who is passionate about entrepreneurship and social impact. His research grapples with the question of how actors can simultaneously create impact and profits through a single organization, venture, or investment decision. His work has been published in top management journals including the Academy of Management Annals, the Academy of Management Journal, the Academy of Management Review, the Journal of Business Venturing, and Organization Science. Tyler’s work has also been featured in American Banker, The Atlantic, The Hill, Knowledge@Wharton[2], National Public Radio, the New York Times, Politico, Reuters, the Washington Post and other popular press outlets. Professor Wry advises a number of impact-startups and is excited to join the Altrui Foundation advisory board.
Frank Altman[edit]
Frank Altman is the CEO of the Community Reinvestment Fund, USA[3]. An experienced business executive, Altman has led CRF USA from a small organization in Minnesota to a national financial institution that has delivered more than $3 billion in capital to borrowers located in more than 750 communities throughout the United States[4]. Altman has engaged major investors on Wall Street in supporting the capital needs of business borrowers located primarily in low-income communities. As part of Altrui’s Advisory Board, Frank helps the team in fundraising initiatives and on strategic growth strategies.
Gopichand Katragadda[edit]
Gopichand Katragadda is the CEO of Myelin Foundry, the ex-CTO of Tata Group & Director of Tata Companies, and the ex-Managing Director of GE’s India Technology Center. With decades of experience under his belt, Gopichand is a global leader in the tech industry. He is the Vice President in the Board of Trustees in the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) and a visiting Professor for entrepreneurship for IIT Hyderabad. As part of Altrui’s Advisory Board, Gopichand helps the team with their Altrui Rx initiative in India and with strategic growth.
Jennifer Schneider[edit]
Jennifer Schneider is the principal of State License Servicing Inc., ToVerify Inc. and PharmaRegs, Inc., which provide life science regulatory compliance services. Her specialties include PDMA compliance audits, counseling pharmaceutical manufacturers, wholesale distributors and third-party logistics companies on state licensing and regulatory issues, and providing guidance on DSCSA compliance. Jennifer works with companies as an outsource solution for the management of state licensure and audits the licensure status of life science companies and their vendors. Her companies also offer state drug price transparency reporting, Puerto Rico representative agent services, and trading partner license verification services. With offices in New York, Pennsylvania, and Puerto Rico, Jennifer has taken a personal interest over the years in lobbying the Puerto Rico government to modify existing law to create a non-resident licensing program in order to bring more competition to the island, thus lowering medication costs, as well as further protecting the safety of the drug supply chain for the island’s residents.
Altrui Rx[edit]
History[edit]
After long hours of discussion, planning, and team recruiting, the journey of Altrui Foundation had begun. Six months ago, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the nation and disproportionality affected certain groups of people in underprivileged situations, the team knew that there was no better time to launch Altrui Foundation – a non-profit social venture with two main initiatives: Altrui Rx and Altrui Education.
Sourish and Rahul both have a lot of exposure to social impact through their involvement in JCWI which provides water filtration systems to impoverished communities in India that lack access to clean water. Additionally, Rahul worked at a local pharmacy in New York lower east side where he had to look at the dating of products and go through all the near expired medications to flag and then eventually throw away – that was when he realized the amount of medications that would end up being thrown out by the end of each shift. Shreya brought in her own experience of social impact after a research project and leading a community service club at her school.
Fast forward to COVID-19, Rahul, Shreya, and Sourish were having dinner and on the TV pops up a headline about supply chain disruptions for a product called "Hydroxychloroquine" for pharmacies, manufacturers and the terrible effects for patients who were skipping doses, but not of their own choice. In that discussion, the puzzle pieces clicked together and the infant-stage idea of Altrui Rx was born.
The Issue[edit]
More than 50 million individuals skip medications due to their high costs, and 27.5 million are uninsured altogether, leaving a substantial portion of the nation’s population without access to prescription medications and generics. Meanwhile, pharmaceutical manufacturers that produce and distribute these medications hold a surplus of unused drugs, which are eventually destroyed by the manufacturers. This process of destroying short-dated medications comes at a cost, both fiscally and environmentally. Not only do over $5 billion of pharmaceutical medications go unused every year, but they also require a fee of $1-3 per pound for their proper destruction, resulting in substantial costs for manufacturers to destroy their own product. The process of destroying unused medications can also have severe environmental consequences, including pollutant leaks, which disrupt water quality, and leachates, which harm solid waste-filled landfills. As many as 70% of waterways are contaminated with pharmaceutical runoff as a result.
The process of destroying medication surpluses heightens the already growing disparity between insured and uninsured patients, as it unnecessarily lessens the supply of unexpired prescription medication that could potentially be distributed. A number of charitable organizations have worked to close this gap by directing unused medications into the hands of billions of those that need them. These organizations include redistribution, disaster relief, and international aid organizations that work to distribute medications to eligible patients who are uninsured, in disaster areas, or in underserved communities.
However, an issue that remains is the lack of efficiency in the current system by which these pharmaceutical manufacturers and organizations communicate with one another. Charitable organizations currently reach out to a number of different manufacturers in order to attempt to seek sources of medications to donate. Manufacturers who decide to donate their unused medications, in turn, must ensure that the short-dates of the medications and the amounts of medications are suitable for the charitable organizations’ needs and restrictions. This can result in an inefficient back-and-forth between organizations, ultimately leading to longer communication periods and more medications that are destroyed. In addition, medications that do not meet the requirements of the given charitable organization that the manufacturer has decided to work with are also disposed of rather than being distributed by other means.
About Us[edit]
To better address these healthcare disparities, the founders created Altrui Rx, an initiative that works to streamline the current process of communication between pharmaceutical manufacturers and charitable organizations. Altrui Rx facilitates the redistribution of unused short-dated medications by acting as a conduit between manufacturers and organizations to supply essential medical products to those in need, both locally and globally. Since its inception in April, Altrui Rx has been able to facilitate over $12 million worth of medications to those in need, and this number is projected to reach $15 million before 2021.
They have improved the current process by serving as an intermediary that receives short-dated product lists that manufacturers are willing to donate after each production cycle and offering medications from these lists to charitable organizations as appropriate to their respective short-date restrictions and capacities. In doing so, they work to remove the inefficiencies in these organizations’ interactions with one another, and to ensure all of the medications on donor manufacturers’ lists are distributed by working with multiple charitable organizations.
Altrui Rx currently works with pharmaceutical partners such as Aurobindo, Rising, Ingenus, Camber, Hetero, and Ascent to get medication to charitable groups such as Kingsway Charities, MAP, SIRUM, and CitiHope. Through Altrui Rx, pharmaceutical manufacturers can upload their inventory lists onto a proprietary platform and receive medication donation requests from reputable organizations working for some of the world’s most indigent patients – all for no cost and all without Altrui Rx ever touching the products.
In the near future, Altrui Rx aims to have all of the pharmaceutical manufacturers and charitable organizations working under Altrui Rx’s platform (for free!) to redirect otherwise unnecessarily wasted products to patients who can benefit from the copious amounts of short-dated medications. In the coming months and years, Altrui Rx aims to grow their presence and impact on a larger scale, thanks to the valuable aid from pharma companies and medical organizations. The team is young, but that has not stopped their dedication and service to social impact and changing an industry filled with products worth billions of dollars in the coming years.
Partners[edit]
Manufacturer[edit]
Aurobindo[edit]
Founded in 1986 by Mr. P. V. Ramprasad Reddy, Mr. K. Nityananda Reddy and a small group of highly committed professionals, Aurobindo Pharma was born of a vision. The company commenced operations in 1988-89 with a single unit manufacturing Semi-Synthetic Penicillin (SSP) at Pondicherry.
Aurobindo Pharma became a public company in 1992 and listed its shares on the Indian stock exchanges in 1995. In addition to being the market leader in Semi-Synthetic Penicillins, it has a presence in key therapeutic segments such as neurosciences, cardiovascular, anti-retrovirals, anti-diabetics, gastroenterology and anti-biotics, among others.
Rising[edit]
Rising Pharma Holdings Inc emerges as a privately held company dedicated to selling generic prescription products and over-the-counter pharmaceutical products under the Rising label to leading wholesalers, chain drug stores, distributors and mass merchandisers.
Ingenus[edit]
Ingenus Pharmaceuticals, LLC, is a privately owned U.S. based pharmaceutical company. Our vision is to be recognized as the most innovative, collaborative and responsive company in the generic pharmaceutical industry.
Ingenus believes lower-cost generic medication improves patient access and offsets overall healthcare costs. Since 2010, Ingenus has helped to make a difference by developing, manufacturing and commercializing quality generic medications as cost effective solutions for patients, suppliers and stakeholders all across the healthcare continuum.
With our focus on transdermal, parenteral, semi-solids, injectable, and extended release products, the ingenuity of our developers and scientists, and our integrated FDA inspected manufacturing and development facilities—headquartered in the U.S.A., Ingenus products foster enhanced access, safety, quality, and transparency standards that continue to make a difference—one medication at a time.
Camber[edit]
Hetero[edit]
Ascent[edit]
Charitable Organization[edit]
Kingsway Charities[edit]
MAP[edit]
SIRUM[edit]
CitiHope[edit]
2L Platform[edit]
Altrui Rx is currently working on its first product, 2L, a full-stack platform that acts as a centralized hub for our charitable organizations and pharmaceutical manufacturers. 2L’s goal is to streamline the Altrui Rx service by introducing a new, systematic medication redistribution process into the pharmaceutical industry.
Under this new system, charitable organizations will not only have easy access to millions of dollars of free, unused medications, but our pharmaceutical manufacturers will also be granted operational efficiency and reduced costs in handling their short-dated inventory. This secure platform will be featured on the Altrui Foundation website, where licensed pharmaceutical manufacturers will be able to upload short-dated medication lists as they please and set their own preferences on which of Altrui Rx’s charitable organizations to donate to and in what order. Subsequently, these approved charitable organizations can then log onto the website and request items from the inventory based on their individual need.
The 2L creates a robust and convenient environment for all of our pharmaceutical partners. Specifically, for our manufacturers, we have established a system to handle medication recalls as well as serialization tracking. Moreover, the 2L provides an innovative standardized system for our manufacturers that allows for greater transparency in the donation process which includes, but is not limited to, destruction certification, license validation, and accurate end-to-end details. For our organizations, we provide them data on donation shipments and monetary value, as well as access to a strong medication supply to enhance their philanthropic endeavors. The 2L is constantly improving; currently, we have used Django, React, MySQL, and AWS to build this product.
Funding[edit]
Ben Health Innovation Summit[edit]
On Saturday, December 5th, Swathi Pavuluri, a first-year student at New Jersey Medical School; Justin Zhang, a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania; and Sourish Jasti, a freshman in Wharton School of Business, pitched Altrui Rx at the Biomedical Entrepreneurship Network (BEN) Health Innovation Summit. The Rx team won 1st place in the competition and received the grand prize of $2,500 alongside the opportunity of pitching to additional networks. Through the competition, Altrui was able to receive more funding to build on projects and build a vaster network. The Health Innovation Summit is held annually with the main goal of “encouraging thoughtful, novel, and future-oriented innovation.” The judges include prominent speakers in health-based entrepreneurship and innovation.
Aurobindo Donation[edit]
Altrui Foundation started 2021 with a generous donation from Aurobindo Pharmaceuticals USA Inc., setting a solid foundation and high hopes for the Foundation’s upcoming endeavors in the new year. On Tuesday, January 4, 2021, Co-Founders Shreya Kavuru, Rahul Kavuru, and Sourish Jasti picked up a check of $3000, presented by Ganesh Venkatasubramaniam, Vice President of Finance, on behalf of Aurobindo at its East Windsor, NJ office. As a way to share the wealth and honor of goodwill, Aurobindo supported Altrui's efforts through in-kind pharmaceutical donations, which have been an incredibly valuable “investments” into the future goals for the Foundation.
NJHF[edit]
Swathi Pavuluri, a first-year student at New Jersey Medical School; Justin Zhang, a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania; and Sourish Jasti, a freshman in Wharton School of Business, pitched Altrui Rx to the NJ Health FoundationThey received $6000 in grant money.
References
- ↑ "Tyler Wry". Management Department. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
- ↑ "Tyler Wry". Management Department. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
- ↑ "Frank Altman". CRF USA. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
- ↑ "Frank Altman | Ashoka | Everyone a Changemaker". www.ashoka.org. Retrieved 2021-05-13.
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