Company Spotlight

Free Market Health: Removing Barriers to Specialty Drug Delivery 

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In the complex, high-stakes world of specialty drugs—where life-altering treatments for conditions like cancer, multiple sclerosis, and rare diseases can cost up to $30,000 a month—Pittsburgh high-growth company Free Market Health is transforming how patients get the medications they need.

Founded in 2019, the healthcare technology company has gained market traction quickly, including with Highmark, an early customer and investor. Free Market Health has already facilitated over $5 billion in drug spending on its care-driven marketplace platform and is on track to more than triple that number by the end of 2026. Their technology connects payers and healthcare providers to a growing network of over 400 accredited specialty pharmacies, optimizing a drug’s journey to the patient. 

“Most patients don’t know we exist,” says Joe Cardosi, Free Market Health’s founder and CEO. “But they should have a better experience because we do.”

While retail pharmacies provide medications for everyday medical needs, specialty pharmacies dispense complex drugs and offer personalized support such as medication counseling, side effect management, benefits coordination and close collaboration with healthcare providers to ensure patient adherence and monitoring. 

Specialty drugs may be one of the biggest markets that many people have never heard of. While serving less than 3% of the population, they account for over 50% of the $720 billion-plus spent annually on pharmaceuticals in the US. Given the growing rates of cancer and other complex diseases, along with advances in medications to treat them, specialty drug costs are expected to increase–making this a major area of concern for payers. 

Historically, payers contracted with a single specialty pharmacy to service their members’ specialty medications, resulting in a one-size-fits-all approach that limited patient access to specialty pharmacies offering clinical services better suited to their unique needs. Moreover, the process of getting a specialty prescription in the hands of a patient is filled with missteps, misdirected interactions, and misaligned incentives that delay medication access, increase costs, and ultimately fail patients.

Free Market Health’s technology platform steps in early—at the point of prescribing—and manages the entire flow of information between payers, providers, and pharmacies. It seamlessly and systematically identifies the specialty pharmacy best suited to meet a patient’s care needs at the best price, faster and with fewer headaches.

A pharmacist by training and a former Walgreens exec with payer strategy experience at Gateway Health, Cardosi brings a rare 360-degree perspective to the specialty drug supply chain and its challenges. That view sparked the idea for Free Market Health: to eliminate the administrative and operational friction that too often delays access to critical medications.

The company’s mission, “never let the process fail the patient,” is more than a slogan. It’s a rallying cry for a team that blends seasoned healthcare veterans with ambitious technologists. Rooted in Pittsburgh—where Cardosi was born, raised, and educated at Duquesne—Free Market Health embodies the city’s emergence as a new hub for health tech innovation. 

“Pittsburgh has a long history of excellence in medical innovation and healthcare delivery systems,” said Cardosi. “Combine that with the top-tier technology and health-science talent our world-class universities are feeding into the ecosystem, and you’ve got a great place to build a healthcare technology company.” 

Looking ahead, the company seeks to bring efficiency to all aspects of the specialty drug ecosystem. “The four P’s—prescriber, pharmacy, payer, and pharmaceutical manufacturer—all need to be aligned,” says Cardosi. “When they are, the patient wins.”

And for Free Market Health, that’s the outcome that matters most.

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