Meeting Title: Henry:Brad Pharmacy Sync Date: 2025-12-18 Meeting participants: Brad Messersmith, Henry Zhao
WEBVTT
1 00:05:20.060 ⇒ 00:05:21.349 Henry Zhao: Hey, Brad, how’s it going?
2 00:05:22.230 ⇒ 00:05:23.399 Brad Messersmith: Hey, good, how are you?
3 00:05:23.730 ⇒ 00:05:25.299 Henry Zhao: Good, thanks, what’s new?
4 00:05:26.950 ⇒ 00:05:31.980 Brad Messersmith: Not a whole lot, just trying to get through the end of the year. The days are running out.
5 00:05:32.210 ⇒ 00:05:39.709 Henry Zhao: Yeah, yeah, what do you have, what do you have planned, or what are your goals for the end of the year? Is there anything I can help with, in the next few, few days before the holidays?
6 00:05:42.700 ⇒ 00:05:51.669 Brad Messersmith: No, not really. I mean, we can talk through what else is needed on my end, but yeah, I mean, at this point, just bringing on new pharmacies and…
7 00:05:52.210 ⇒ 00:05:54.010 Brad Messersmith: You know, working through the normal stuff.
8 00:05:55.110 ⇒ 00:05:59.660 Henry Zhao: Cool. Any… have you heard from, Gal at all, ever since that last call?
9 00:06:01.370 ⇒ 00:06:12.490 Brad Messersmith: Not really, I mean, I’ve interacted with him on some other things, like getting some other pharmacies integrated and whatnot, but I haven’t really heard much on the vial request other than what you’ve seen in the emails.
10 00:06:13.010 ⇒ 00:06:16.420 Henry Zhao: Okay, so we’re still… we don’t still have the vials, right? Yeah.
11 00:06:17.840 ⇒ 00:06:19.899 Brad Messersmith: Yeah, as far as I know.
12 00:06:20.750 ⇒ 00:06:25.339 Henry Zhao: Okay, and have you been able to look at this dashboard yet that I shared a while back?
13 00:06:26.530 ⇒ 00:06:29.249 Brad Messersmith: No, this one I haven’t seen.
14 00:06:30.040 ⇒ 00:06:31.989 Henry Zhao: Okay. Forecasting, okay.
15 00:06:32.240 ⇒ 00:06:48.570 Henry Zhao: Yeah, so this is what we talked about, like, putting what you had in that Excel in Tableau. So basically, we broke it down by date, and I said, like we said, I can break it down into multiple breakdowns, so if you need, like, by pharmacy and by product name, like, I can break
16 00:06:48.570 ⇒ 00:07:00.230 Henry Zhao: Okay. And then also expand it out by months, so that you can do it. Basically, I put it here as an example, I don’t know, I don’t think I ever told you to look at this yet, but basically.
17 00:07:00.410 ⇒ 00:07:10.850 Henry Zhao: I made this chart to look at by pharmacy and by product and by month, kind of how many products were ordered, what was the COGS that we have in our data without the vial size.
18 00:07:11.020 ⇒ 00:07:17.919 Henry Zhao: How many of them shipped after 2 days? How many after 3 days? So that was… would be missing SL.
19 00:07:17.920 ⇒ 00:07:18.620 Brad Messersmith: Okay.
20 00:07:18.620 ⇒ 00:07:21.310 Henry Zhao: How many past 5 and past 10 to kind of analyze this?
21 00:07:23.570 ⇒ 00:07:26.370 Brad Messersmith: Okay, yeah, so can you go back to the dashboard real quick?
22 00:07:26.370 ⇒ 00:07:26.910 Henry Zhao: Yeah.
23 00:07:26.910 ⇒ 00:07:29.090 Brad Messersmith: Let’s just look at this for a quick second together.
24 00:07:30.380 ⇒ 00:07:35.949 Brad Messersmith: Go back to the other table that you showed me, like, the first… yeah, yeah,
25 00:07:37.000 ⇒ 00:07:44.260 Brad Messersmith: Right, okay, so… this is… Volume by pharmacy by month, right?
26 00:07:44.260 ⇒ 00:07:44.890 Henry Zhao: Yeah.
27 00:07:46.230 ⇒ 00:07:54.460 Brad Messersmith: Okay, perfect. So then, can… can we… Incorporate a chart with this.
28 00:07:54.580 ⇒ 00:08:01.450 Brad Messersmith: And I think that’s a very simple kind of starting point, to be honest with you. I kind of like this as, let’s chase this thread, because…
29 00:08:01.830 ⇒ 00:08:05.310 Brad Messersmith: This at least gives us up-to-date information
30 00:08:06.010 ⇒ 00:08:08.980 Brad Messersmith: I’m kind of wondering if I shouldn’t show you
31 00:08:09.440 ⇒ 00:08:12.449 Brad Messersmith: It’s similar to what I think I’ve shown you before, though.
32 00:08:12.450 ⇒ 00:08:20.119 Henry Zhao: Yeah, but this allows you to basically not have to work in Excel if you have an independent lot of rows. Where do I open this?
33 00:08:22.250 ⇒ 00:08:26.689 Brad Messersmith: Because I think we need it in a, you know, like, kind of trend chart.
34 00:08:26.800 ⇒ 00:08:30.589 Brad Messersmith: And probably by day and by month, if possible.
35 00:08:30.590 ⇒ 00:08:44.009 Henry Zhao: Yep, okay, so I can make it expandable. So, so, like, the first thing I do want to do is, like, if you want to break it down by more than just pharmacy, I can add, like, more and more breakdowns. So, like, for example, I have breakdown here, but I can add in, like, a second breakdown.
36 00:08:44.730 ⇒ 00:08:51.059 Brad Messersmith: Well, I don’t… no, no, no, I think that’s even more complicated than I’m thinking. If you can, filter the data.
37 00:08:51.740 ⇒ 00:08:52.530 Henry Zhao: Yeah, so…
38 00:08:52.530 ⇒ 00:08:56.739 Brad Messersmith: Let me show you, let me just show you my screen real quick. Okay. I think it’ll make more sense.
39 00:09:07.170 ⇒ 00:09:12.680 Brad Messersmith: So, if you look, this is basically the table, right? Like, you’ve created the table.
40 00:09:12.880 ⇒ 00:09:15.890 Brad Messersmith: This is the way I imagine the chart being.
41 00:09:16.720 ⇒ 00:09:25.679 Brad Messersmith: And then, ideally, from here, I could pick, like, this is just SEMA, right? Or, if I want to see all.
42 00:09:26.150 ⇒ 00:09:37.920 Brad Messersmith: it might get a little bit, like, kind of crowded, but we could play with that. You see what I’m saying, though? Yeah. Like, if I can get a trend chart like this, that’s the basics of… and then be able to filter that by…
43 00:09:38.040 ⇒ 00:09:39.060 Brad Messersmith: product.
44 00:09:39.930 ⇒ 00:09:44.129 Brad Messersmith: And then we can almost flip-flop it and do the same with, product.
45 00:09:44.240 ⇒ 00:09:46.759 Brad Messersmith: And then also a daily snapshot of the same.
46 00:09:50.250 ⇒ 00:09:50.590 Henry Zhao: Yep.
47 00:09:50.590 ⇒ 00:09:59.289 Brad Messersmith: That info, just being connected, not in Excel, is super helpful, because you can see, the last time I updated this was actually November.
48 00:09:59.290 ⇒ 00:09:59.880 Henry Zhao: Yeah.
49 00:09:59.880 ⇒ 00:10:09.580 Brad Messersmith: You know, but this is, like, the basic kind of information I really need to see every day. I’m trying to get more orders to Eden Pharmacy and whatnot, so having that connected is simple, should be super helpful.
50 00:10:09.900 ⇒ 00:10:10.570 Henry Zhao: Okay?
51 00:10:12.100 ⇒ 00:10:25.789 Brad Messersmith: And then from there, I mean, really, I kind of think, let’s just start with that, right? Like, let’s kind of build this out and get it into a simple starting point, and we can involve Katie and pull her in and see what else is needed. I think, like.
52 00:10:27.370 ⇒ 00:10:39.119 Brad Messersmith: I want to kind of re… rethink about how we’re going about this, because I think I threw everything out on the table at the same time. It’s probably easier to just, little by little, kind of build the vehicle one piece at a time.
53 00:10:39.310 ⇒ 00:10:43.449 Brad Messersmith: And these are real basic, you know, pieces of info that would be super useful.
54 00:10:43.820 ⇒ 00:10:44.570 Henry Zhao: Okay.
55 00:10:44.700 ⇒ 00:10:52.359 Henry Zhao: Yeah, and then with the table there, you can also just export the table and add in your ratios to, like, forecast the future, so that you don’t have to, like, kind of mess with this every time.
56 00:10:52.870 ⇒ 00:11:01.020 Brad Messersmith: Right, right, yeah, yeah. That… my head’s going the same place, like, if I can pull it into a table, then I can do the Excel part of it to actually forecast, it’s simple enough.
57 00:11:01.230 ⇒ 00:11:05.719 Brad Messersmith: And the only other thing in my head that comes to mind that would be really useful
58 00:11:06.130 ⇒ 00:11:11.369 Brad Messersmith: Would be a… just one monthly total.
59 00:11:11.590 ⇒ 00:11:13.800 Henry Zhao: Like, total, total volumes.
60 00:11:14.480 ⇒ 00:11:15.070 Henry Zhao: Okay?
61 00:11:15.300 ⇒ 00:11:20.290 Brad Messersmith: And then, also, allow me to filter that by pharmacy and by product.
62 00:11:20.290 ⇒ 00:11:20.810 Henry Zhao: Yep.
63 00:11:20.930 ⇒ 00:11:21.760 Henry Zhao: Easy.
64 00:11:22.300 ⇒ 00:11:29.760 Brad Messersmith: So, just a bar chart. That’s the basics of the data, at least understanding what we’ve got in front of us, right?
65 00:11:32.450 ⇒ 00:11:42.830 Brad Messersmith: So, I think if we start there, we can kind of… that’ll be the home base, and then build out and make things a little more complicated, but I think that’s a good stopping point, right? For now?
66 00:11:42.830 ⇒ 00:11:44.699 Henry Zhao: Okay. Yeah, sounds good.
67 00:11:46.140 ⇒ 00:11:51.239 Brad Messersmith: It’s hopefully all pretty straight, like, this is pretty reasonable, right, to be able to put that in place?
68 00:11:51.380 ⇒ 00:11:51.940 Henry Zhao: Yeah.
69 00:11:52.480 ⇒ 00:11:53.200 Brad Messersmith: Okay.
70 00:11:53.380 ⇒ 00:12:01.260 Brad Messersmith: Alright, cool, yeah, let’s do that, and then from there, we can see about… hopefully, at some point, we just still get the vial size stuff and the cogs and all that, but…
71 00:12:01.960 ⇒ 00:12:09.930 Brad Messersmith: At least having the volume kind of data in a format that’s usable for us takes us two steps forward, so that’ll be good.
72 00:12:09.930 ⇒ 00:12:25.289 Henry Zhao: Okay, great. And then, just to clarify on what you said earlier, you said, I’m trying to get more prescriptions to Eden Pharmacy. What does that entail? How do you, quote-unquote, get more prescriptions to Eden Pharmacy? Is it not as simple as just routing them there, or, like, what do you mean by trying to get more prescriptions to Eden?
73 00:12:25.290 ⇒ 00:12:26.100 Brad Messersmith: Yeah.
74 00:12:26.510 ⇒ 00:12:34.019 Brad Messersmith: It’s a good question. There’s a couple of things. Some of it is BAS-related. I think we’ve sorted that part of it out, but…
75 00:12:34.230 ⇒ 00:12:43.399 Brad Messersmith: Ryan from marketing is obviously heavily involved in intakes and routing state by state. They’re putting a new tool in place
76 00:12:43.870 ⇒ 00:12:46.850 Brad Messersmith: within BASC, that’s like a state-by-state
77 00:12:47.470 ⇒ 00:12:50.239 Brad Messersmith: Tool to route… help us route orders.
78 00:12:50.630 ⇒ 00:13:00.970 Brad Messersmith: So, it’s really just that. I mean, the movement of the orders to Eden Pharmacy is fine, but I’m also tasked, because of my role being operations-oriented.
79 00:13:01.060 ⇒ 00:13:14.560 Brad Messersmith: with helping improve the throughput at Eden Pharmacy, actually. So, like, last week, I was in New Mexico there, trying to help them think through their layout, and, you know, how do we get them going from 250 orders to 500?
80 00:13:14.890 ⇒ 00:13:29.619 Brad Messersmith: So, maybe there could be, like, some data connection stuff with Eden Pharmacy specific that might be helpful down the line, but, you know, for now, it’s really just a matter of me working with their team, and also their licensing, right? Like, their state… as they get more states.
81 00:13:29.780 ⇒ 00:13:32.069 Brad Messersmith: We just moved over New York, for example.
82 00:13:32.420 ⇒ 00:13:42.259 Brad Messersmith: Like, that’s a huge win. A lot more orders are gonna flow to Eden Pharmacy, but then I need to help them be able to sustain those orders and keep up with them all and whatnot.
83 00:13:43.420 ⇒ 00:13:51.669 Henry Zhao: And how do you do that? Is it by staffing properly? Is it getting the materials there? Like, what are the challenges right now to getting them prepared for, like, a higher inflow of orders?
84 00:13:52.760 ⇒ 00:13:59.740 Brad Messersmith: Some of it is, I think, space. It’s the flow of their actual process, you know? I mean, it’s not…
85 00:14:00.720 ⇒ 00:14:10.560 Brad Messersmith: They’ve run out of space, and it’s not super well, organized in terms of, like, how an order is going from one part of the building to the next, or even one step to the next.
86 00:14:10.950 ⇒ 00:14:20.309 Brad Messersmith: So, going there and just seeing how the orders flow and understanding where their bottlenecks are. Some of it is staffing-related, like, what can we have a pharmacist
87 00:14:20.600 ⇒ 00:14:26.589 Brad Messersmith: a clerk doing, that a pharmacist is doing, and freeing up their time, and so there’s some resource, kind of.
88 00:14:27.020 ⇒ 00:14:37.790 Brad Messersmith: You know, nature of this, but more than that, it’s more just process improvement and going, how long does each step take, which steps take the longest, and how do we improve those?
89 00:14:38.020 ⇒ 00:14:43.180 Brad Messersmith: And, you know, where’s the wait time? Where are the, kind of, waste… areas.
90 00:14:47.060 ⇒ 00:15:05.160 Henry Zhao: Okay, makes sense. And then I see, like, volumes are growing a lot, right? Like, in Enovex and, like, Optio, RX, and Absolute Pharmacy, and I see that, like, I think the SLAs were suffering quite a bit in those two pharmacies, so are you doing anything in terms of work, or you, are you, Katie, like, doing anything to kind of address
91 00:15:05.260 ⇒ 00:15:07.639 Henry Zhao: That, and how are you guys going about that?
92 00:15:08.820 ⇒ 00:15:26.449 Brad Messersmith: Well, yeah, I mean, that’s the goal of the forecast, to be able to give each of the pharmacies the amount of orders that they can expect for the future, future months. That’s the main thing, but also, same answer for Optio and any of the suppliers, really. I’m more involved with Eden Pharmacy, just because they’re our pharmacy, but…
93 00:15:26.840 ⇒ 00:15:33.059 Brad Messersmith: Optio had the same kind of grow… growing pains, like, as their… Volumes have gone up.
94 00:15:33.310 ⇒ 00:15:42.450 Brad Messersmith: they’ve struggled to keep up with them. They’re back in good shape now, because over time, working with them to clear those constraints, they’ve improved their throughput.
95 00:15:42.990 ⇒ 00:15:47.070 Henry Zhao: Okay, and then so let me… so let me just, like, assuming that…
96 00:15:47.260 ⇒ 00:16:03.490 Henry Zhao: we’re about to increase volumes even further, and let’s say Absolute Pharmacy can’t handle that, what do you do? Do you reroute those to Eden? Do you find a new pharmacy? Do you reactivate a pharmacy Hub? Like, what are your points of action that you can take if volumes are increasing and you don’t expect them to be able to handle that?
97 00:16:04.630 ⇒ 00:16:15.470 Brad Messersmith: Yeah, any and all of those things. Pharmacy Hub is being brought back on right now, so is Boothwin, and then another wave of 3 or 4 pharmacies that I’m talking to right now.
98 00:16:15.730 ⇒ 00:16:21.050 Brad Messersmith: So, yeah, bringing on more capacity, but also, again, the forecast, like.
99 00:16:21.280 ⇒ 00:16:30.269 Brad Messersmith: if we tell Optio next month… right now, Optio has no clue. It could be 20,000 orders next month, and they wouldn’t be able to sustain it, maybe. Like…
100 00:16:30.740 ⇒ 00:16:37.810 Brad Messersmith: part of the problem is I have no clue. Like, you can imagine, if I haven’t updated the spreadsheet since November.
101 00:16:38.200 ⇒ 00:16:40.970 Brad Messersmith: Like, how much do I really know? Not much.
102 00:16:41.310 ⇒ 00:16:46.260 Brad Messersmith: So, that’s why I think start simple, like, get it connected.
103 00:16:46.380 ⇒ 00:16:50.569 Brad Messersmith: So I can at least see the orders flowing and what’s happening, you know?
104 00:16:50.570 ⇒ 00:17:03.970 Henry Zhao: So the good news is, I will be adding this chart for you today, but then we also have a forecasting analyst now that’s helping us working on, like, forecasting future volumes based on ad spend and CAC and trends, so I’m gonna just have hers.
105 00:17:04.050 ⇒ 00:17:21.600 Henry Zhao: output, then eventually be able to work with you to say, you know, based on if, you know, marketing spends this much extra money, or if we add this new product, here’s what we actually expect volumes to be, so that you can get an even better, I guess, forecasting for these pharmacies, so you can be prepared for 2026.
106 00:17:22.200 ⇒ 00:17:31.510 Brad Messersmith: Okay, yeah, that’s perfect. Connecting directly to marketing and what they’re forecasting is really what I would rather be doing, honestly. I was kind of doing some of this in the absence of knowing.
107 00:17:31.710 ⇒ 00:17:39.590 Brad Messersmith: But for our pharmacies, I need to know, right? The marketing team would have a better sense, or should have a better sense, based on those metrics that you just mentioned.
108 00:17:40.480 ⇒ 00:17:48.109 Brad Messersmith: So, I’m good with all that. I mean, I think we take the baby steps here, and then the further along we get, the easier it’ll be to plug into
109 00:17:48.250 ⇒ 00:17:49.880 Brad Messersmith: That kind of forecasting.
110 00:17:52.040 ⇒ 00:17:57.079 Henry Zhao: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so that sounds good. So, we’ll get that done by this week, and then…
111 00:17:57.370 ⇒ 00:18:12.919 Henry Zhao: Hopefully that’ll set us up for 2026 to be ready to have good forecasting, so you can be prepared to kind of do your negotiations and route the prescriptions properly, and then once we have vial size, we’ll add that in as well, and hopefully we should be in a good spot.
112 00:18:13.160 ⇒ 00:18:14.520 Henry Zhao: At the start of next year.
113 00:18:15.230 ⇒ 00:18:16.929 Brad Messersmith: Yeah, that sounds good.
114 00:18:16.930 ⇒ 00:18:19.210 Henry Zhao: Alright, great. Thanks, Brad, this has been really helpful.
115 00:18:19.610 ⇒ 00:18:20.829 Brad Messersmith: Alright, thanks a lot. Bye.
116 00:18:20.830 ⇒ 00:18:21.790 Henry Zhao: Have a good one, bye.
117 00:18:21.980 ⇒ 00:18:22.690 Brad Messersmith: You too, bye.