A woman who’s been called ‘Doogie Howser’ is building the pharmacy of the future, and it's like Uber for drugs

Capsule Pharmacy

Going to a pharmacy isn't the most fun experience. You sometimes wait in line only to find out a pill your doctor prescribed you isn't ready for pick-up yet, costs a fortune, or isn't in stock.

Sonia Patel, a former pharmacy manager for Sam's Club and Eric Kinariwala, a former Bain Capital analyst, want to reimagine the experience.

On Tuesday morning, the pair launched Capsule, a startup that wants you to never visit a physical pharmacy, like Walgreens or CVS, again.

Instead, Capsule will deliver your pills to your home or office for you, kind of like hailing an Uber. Here's how it works.

• When your doctor asks which pharmacy you use, simply say "Capsule" instead of "CVS" or whichever other local pharmacy you visit.
• Unlike CVS, which has multiple locations and sells lots of things, Capsule only has one store per city, which you can choose to visit or not.
• Inside the Capsule's store, which it calls the hub, there are full-time pharmacists who fulfill orders and full-time couriers who deliver to your preferred address. Currently, Capsule only has a hub in New York City, on west 25th Street, but it delivers to all of New York City with the exception of Staten Island. Other cities will be launching soon.
• On Capsule's app, your insurance information automatically populates, or you can snap a photo of your insurance card if for some reason your information doesn't pop up.
• You can read information about your prescription — including how much it costs and how many doses to take — on the app. Then you can put the pills in your shopping cart and choose a delivery date, time, and address.  
• If you have any questions, you can chat with a pharmacist on the app 24/7. Otherwise, your medicine will show up on your doorstep when you want it, within a two-hour window.

Capsule has been quietly working in stealth mode since last September, when Patel and Kinariwala formed the company and moved into the location on West 25th street.

The pharmacy you never have to visit (but you can if you want)

Currently, the Capsule office looks pretty unassuming from the outside. This picture shows how it looked last week when we went to visit the founders.

But once you're inside, it looks like an ordinary pharmacy: Clean and organized, with pharmacists on staff and pills dangling from the walls.

Here's the inside of the Capsule hub.

Meet the "Doogie Howser" of drugs.

The pharmacy is run by Sonia Patel, who comes from a family of pharmacists. Her cofounder calls her "Doogie Howser," because she got her doctorate in pharmacy at a very young age. Most pharmacists need about eight years of school to get their degree; four in undergrad and four additional.

Patel did it in six, with just two years of undergrad. She completed the whole program by the time she was 23 from the University of Austin.

Patel and Kinariwala first met in 2005, but it wasn't until 10 years later that they'd start Capsule together. Kinariwala, who was formerly a tech investor, had a terrible experience at his local pharmacy and wondered why there wasn't a better process for getting medication, or a way to get pill deliveries from his smart phone.

Patel had been working with pharmacies for Sam's Club. So the two got together, raised a round of financing from venture capital firm Thrive Capital, and reimagined the pharmacy experience from scratch.