On the same day as the announcement of a federal investigation into the company's prescribing practices, SoftBank-backed (OTC: SFTBY) telehealth startup Cerebral Inc. said it would no longer offer prescriptions for controlled substances to new patients, including Adderall, Ritalin, and Xanax.
Like many of the telehealth companies that have cropped up since the pandemic began, Cerebral offers online therapy and counseling for conditions including anxiety, ADHD, and insomnia. Currently, the company offers services to more than 200,000 patients. Cerebral has been one of only a few telehealth companies to also offer prescriptions.
"To be clear, at this time, no regulatory or law enforcement authority has accused Cerebral of violating any law. Cerebral intends to fully cooperate with the investigation, which we already have conveyed to the U.S. Attorney's Office," Cerebral wrote in a statement.
Cerebral co-founder Kyle Robertson wrote in a May 13 email to reporters that the company would end nearly all prescriptions for controlled substances by October of this year. The company said that it will be making an exception for medications used to treat opioid dependency.
In the email, Robertson claimed that the company is ending its prescription services because they are no longer needed: he said the company had only started offering telehealth prescriptions after lockdowns started in 2020. Robertson wrote that the company's prescription of most controlled substances is ending because of "the ability for patients to return to an in-person or hybrid care model for this treatment."
However, even if Cerebral had continued writing Adderall prescriptions, it would have had a hard time getting them filled. In April, pharmacies like CVS (NYSE: CVS) and Walmart (NYSE: WMT) had already begun turning away prescriptions for controlled substances from Cerebral. Even Cerebral's "preferred pharmacy", Truebill, has stopped filling the company's scripts.
At least since 2022 began, there have been widespread reports and questions regarding Cerebral's allegedly questionable prescribing practices. There have been several reports of practitioners being pressured to prescribe medications after just one 30-minute appointment.
Regulators and medical professionals make up a significant portion of the conversation surrounding the issue, but much of the exposure was seen on social media platforms. Cerebral gained the majority of its popularity on the social media app TikTok.
On May 4, Cerebral received notice that it was under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department (DOJ) when the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York sent a subpoena requesting documents for a grand jury. Insider has also reported that the company is under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), but it's unknown whether or not the investigations are related.
Telehealth companies were first given permission to offer prescriptions without in-person visits in 2020 when U.S. regulators relaxed the rules in response to the pandemic. While that change has increased access to prescription medications, it has also increased the opportunity for abuse.