Telehealth provider Wisp has partnered with Daye to offer the period care brand’s diagnostic tampons via e-commerce.
The partnership will broaden the reach of the tampons. Since its 2018 launch, San Francisco-based Wisp has helped over 1 million patients across the United States. London-based Daye’s $125 Diagnostic Tampon is a non-invasive screening method that tests the vaginal microbiome, an emerging area for medical diagnostics, for lactobacilli, candida, ureaplasma and more to yield information on yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, sexually transmitted infections and fertility. Users wear the tampon for at least 20 minutes and send it to Daye for test results within five to 10 days.
Also launched in 2018, Daye entered the United States through its website in October. The brand, which has raised nearly $24 million in funding, is known for CBD-infused tampons sold online and at Walmart in the U.S. Prior to Daye’s partnership with Wisp, Diagnostic Tampon users would have to seek treatments or preventative products for conditions it illuminates on their own. Now, patients ordering it on Wisp can receive follow-up care in the form of a prescription or preventative health product from the telehealth provider.
“Daye has all of these women who take the test and then are like, ‘What are my next steps? Do I need a prescription for recurring BV? Yeast infections?’ That’s why I think we’re stronger together,” says Wisp CEO Monica Cepak. “For us, it’s a faster way to get a product like this out to market and really build that end-to-end diagnostics to care in a seamless way for the patient.”
For customers requiring medical care, Wisp’s telehealth services and products can be paid for in cash or with Health Savings Accounts or Flexible Spending Accounts. It will send prescriptions to the pharmacy of patients’ choice typically within in three to five hours. It serves patients in all 50 states.
“Most of our services are in fact cheaper than a co-pay, and we really specialize in same-day treatments or really common and yet highly stigmatized conditions, things like UTIs, yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, herpes,” says Cepak, adding, “It’s a really valuable service for patients who are in a bind and don’t want to take that really costly and time-intensive trip to urgent care or the ER.”
Wisp offers over 30 products across eight health and wellness categories, including vaginal health, sexual wellness, prevention, reproductive health. Introduced last month, fertility is its latest vertical. Wisp’s partnership with Daye follows a partnership sexual health startup TBD Health. It taps TBD Health’s STI test kits and diagnostics labs to give patients results usually in 72 hours or less through Wisp’s site.
Treatments for bacterial vaginosis is Wisp’s largest category, followed by treatments for yeast infections, urinary tract infections and herpes. In the sexual pleasure category, it’s seen robust demand for OMG! Cream, a topical product described as Viagra for women that Wisp formulated to aid women with achieving better, strong orgasms.
Expanding non-prescription categories is a focus for Wisp, and it’s teaming up with its medical advisors to develop custom formulas informed by feedback from patients. It has several launches slated for the end of summer. Cepak says Wisp is increasingly looking to seize upon opportunities spanning preventative and episodic health that could be sold on an annual subscription basis. In particular, formulas for UTIs and BV are being considered for possible release next year.
“We, of course, want to be there during an outbreak or during a critical moment, but we also want to help educate our patients on all of the preventative health options over time that can reduce their frequency of outbreaks,” says Cepak, continuing, “From an overall growth perspective, where I see Wisp a few years out is really becoming that go-to brand for all things sexual and reproductive health, inclusive of all life stages of a women’s health journey.”
Publicly traded Well Health, a Canadian healthcare company headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, acquired a majority stake in Wisp in 2021 for $41.3 million. Wisp is currently exploring strategic alternatives. Cepak says, “We’ll likely change our ownership structure to someone based in the U.S. this year.”
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