Virtual opioid use dysfunction supplier Bicycle Well being introduced Thursday that it’s partnering with Albertsons, a grocery store and pharmacy chain, to enlarge get entry to to buprenorphine remedy for opioid use dysfunction.

Boston-based Bicycle Well being is a virtual well being corporate that works with payers and serves the ones suffering with habit by way of providing drugs for habit remedy, remedy and peer make stronger. A few of Bicycle Well being’s payer shoppers come with UnitedHealthcare, Aetna and Cigna. Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons is the second-largest grocery store chain within the U.S., with a footprint throughout 34 states.

Via the brand new partnership, Bicycle Well being suppliers can prescribe buprenorphine prolonged unencumber injections (another way referred to as Sublocade) to opioid use dysfunction sufferers. The medicine can then be administered by way of a pharmacist at an Albertsons pharmacy in a personal room. Buprenorphine is a partial opioid agonist this is used to regard the ones with opioid use dysfunction. Bicycle Well being then supplies follow-up care and behavioral well being make stronger thru its digital program.

About 2.5 million adults within the U.S. battled opioid use dysfunction in 2021, however just one in 5 won drugs to regard the situation. By means of operating with Bicycle Well being, Albertsons hopes to switch this statistic.

“Providing restoration injectables at our pharmacies fill a necessity in our communities the place sufferers are in search of selection remedy choices to regulate opioid use dysfunction in a stigma-free setting,” mentioned Erin Shaal, vice chairman of prescription procurement, strong point and affected person care at Albertsons Firms, in a remark.

Sublocade is injected once-a-month, while Suboxone (any other type of buprenorphine) is taken orally on a daily basis. Ankit Gupta, CEO of Bicycle Well being, contended {that a} per 30 days injection is much less of a burden to sufferers than an oral day-to-day drugs.

“It’s a lot more uncomplicated to be adherent to the drugs protocol,” Gupta mentioned in an interview. “It’s additionally a lot more uncomplicated from a confidentiality point of view. Some sufferers don’t wish to have Suboxone at house or mendacity round.”

He added that Sublocade may be higher for sufferers who’re at upper possibility of diversion. Drugs diversion refers back to the unlawful use or distribution of pharmaceuticals.

The partnership’s services and products are to be had at greater than 700 Albertsons pharmacies throughout 17 states. They’re Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington. Bicycle Well being and Albertsons plan to enlarge to extra states someday.

Their partnership has no monetary part, Gupta mentioned. As an alternative, each firms will invoice insurers independently for his or her services and products.

Bicycle Well being first discovered this sort of make stronger was once wanted after it introduced a partnership with the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to serve the ones leaving jail. That’s a inhabitants that particularly struggles with gaining access to make stronger for substance-use dysfunction. Via that partnership, Bicycle Well being supplies digital opioid use dysfunction services and products to sufferers residing within the Bureau’s residential reentry facilities.

“Throughout the jail, they’re expanding the management of Sublocade and the usage of Sublocade,” Gupta mentioned. “So when a affected person is on Sublocade they usually depart, they wish to proceed that remedy. It was once actually onerous for us and the BOP to search out native suppliers around the states that we’re offering this deal with.”

Different digital opioid use dysfunction firms come with Ophelia, Workit Well being and Confidant Well being, which additionally prescribe buprenorphine.

Photograph: mikdam, Getty Pictures