Telehealth companies shifting from access to care to selling drugs

The cacti started sprouting up in subway stations. On the walls of New York City’s MTA stations and street corners in San Francisco, ads for the telehealth company Hims displayed a menagerie of spiky succulents. One had a familiar bulbous tip and a slight Tower of Pisa lean. Another drooped sadly over its terracotta pot, sharing a message: “Hard, made easy.”

The cheeky ads for erectile dysfunction drugs were inescapable in city centers around 2018. “Erectile dysfunction meds prescribed online, delivered to your ‘friend’s’ door,” read a subway ad from Roman, now known as Ro — pitching patients on a new form of discreet, convenient virtual care.

When these campaigns launched, created by some of the same agencies behind direct-to-consumer brands like Warby Parker and Harry’s, virtual visits