A mere nine years ago, Win Purifoy knew nothing about pharmaceuticals. Today, he and his team have built Dallas-based Senderra Rx into a $700 million operation that works with about 8,000 physicians each month.
When a patient is diagnosed with an auto-immume disorder such as Crohn’s disease, symptoms can be managed, but not without expensive and complicated medications, life changes, and a deep dive into the healthcare system. Insurance companies aren’t as willing to pay for auto-immune medications, which can run up to $100,000 a year in some cases.
Despite the hurdles to a normal life, treatment can result in a return to normalcy, but it takes the ability to navigate between providers, drug companies, pharmacies and insurance companies to make sure the medicine is delivered, understood, and paid for. That’s where specialty pharmacies like Senderra come into the picture.
Founded in 2010 by Purifoy, who is the company’s chairman, President Will Howard, and Senior Vice President of Sales Tom Bohanan, Senderra created a system to make obtaining auto-immune disease medication as seamless as possible. The average therapy at Senderra runs between $5,000 and $6,000 a month, and cutting through the red tape can be tough for the average person.
Senderra built a portal called CarePath for patients who need complex and expensive auto-immune therapy that tracks their medication, symptoms, and allows their team to explain the disease, the medication, and ensure proper delivery and follow-up. The process ends up saving consumers and insurance companies money by reducing return trips to the hospital that result from a patient not taking all of their medication when they start to improve.
Although Senderra’s technology and processes allow it to deliver life-altering medicine in an efficient and convenient manner, Purifoy emphasizes an approach that is built to help people who have just received a devastating diagnosis. “We are developing our culture of how to deal with people who are not having the best day,” he says. “Our goal is to treat each patient like they are the only patient we have.”
It is this customer-first approach that has helped Senderra Rx grow to serve more than 27,000 patients in all 50 states.
Prior to Senderra, Purifoy spent time in the telecom and oil and gas industries. He also helps run Cibolo Capital Partners, an integrated merchant banking firm that invests in early stage entrepreneurs.
But don’t ask Purifoy to brag on himself. “I surround myself with superior talent, really smart people that dug in deep here,” he says. “I am the least of the story here. I like to dream big dreams and have people that are silly enough to follow them. If we didn’t have a great team, we would not be able to compete.”
