Rising healthcare costs are pushing employers to their limits. Even though demand for GLP‑1 weight-loss medications is surging, nearly two-thirds of companies still don’t offer coverage for them.
Andel, a Las Vegas-based startup founded in 2025 by Jay Bregman and PharmD Ritu Malhotra, has just raised $4.5 million from Lightbank, Seedcamp, Bertelsmann Investments, Houghton Street Ventures, and Springboard, to change how employers provide these treatments.
Bregman, a serial entrepreneur with experience leading startups like Hailo and Thimble, brings business savvy. At the same time, Malhotra, a pharmacist with over two decades in the benefits and pharmacy world, including leadership at CVS Health, offers expert industry insight. Together, they created a model that combines innovation with a mission to improve access to healthcare directly.
At the core of Andel’s model is a cooperative purchasing platform. By pooling demand from employers, it negotiates directly with manufacturers to secure GLP‑1 medications at below-market prices. Employers decide how much to subsidise, allowing employees to get affordable, brand-name prescriptions with no hassle.
The whole process (prescription verification, delivery, and management) is handled through an intuitive app. This approach cuts out traditional pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and the complexity of insurer networks, setting Andel apart from competitors, such as Express Scripts (The Cigna Group), OptumRx (UnitedHealth Group), and CVS Caremark (CVS Health).
Looking ahead, Andel plans to grow quickly across the U.S., add more employer partners, and expand its cooperative pricing model to other costly speciality drugs.
The company is already in talks with major benefits consultants and expects to announce new strategic partnerships in early 2026 as it scales its innovative pharmacy benefits solution nationwide.
