For patients who want to bypass the doctor's office and buy prescription drugs online, services like Hims and Ro's Roman offer rival services to do just that.
Now, the competition is heating up, with an accusation by Ro CEO Zachariah Reitano that Hims cribbed part of Ro's website.
The claim focuses on an online doctor's consultation that patients must go through — and which Reitano says a redesign of Hims's site copies "word for word" from Ro, from the design to the website copy and even copyediting mistakes.
"On behalf of Hims' patients, thank you for copying Ro," CEO Zachariah Reitano wrote in a Medium post on Monday. The post is full of screenshots comparing Hims's website and Ro's platform, including screenshots of what Hims's site looked like before.
Hims did not immediately return a request for comment.
Read more: We tried to buy generic Viagra online from Hims and failed — here's how it went down
Ro and Hims are part of a new wave of startups changing the way people access healthcare like prescriptions by offering it online. The model is also controversial because of the way it could cut medications off from the wider healthcare system.
Reitano's post takes a mocking tone, even making a reference to a quotation from Marcus Aurelius about imitation being a form of compliment. He also jokes about Aurelius being a Roman emperor, since Ro's men's health brand is called Roman, and laughingly encourages Hims to copy other Ro features, like free two-day shipping.
But the rivalry between Hims and Ro is serious business.
Both companies have raised millions from investors in hopes of leading the booming online healthcare market. With such similar services, even an online website's design can set a company apart.
Ro's online doctor visits were designed by "Ro's Clinical Directors, physician network, and world renowned medical advisory board," Reitano said in an emailed statement to Business Insider.
"Over the last two years, we've run thousands of A/B tests and have conducted countless patient interviews to make sure we're always improving and offering the best possible experience for patients," he said.
Initialized Capital's Alexis Ohanian, whose firm is an investor in Ro, waded into the conversation on Monday, tweeting at Atomic founder and managing partner Jack Abraham, who co-founded Hims.
—Alexis Ohanian Sr. 🚀 (@alexisohanian) September 9, 2019
Lydia Ramsey contributed reporting.
- Read more:
- The inside story of how a tiny startup and a controversial Twitter doctor sparked viral internet outrage against CVS
- Why insurers are beginning to embrace billion-dollar healthcare startups like SmileDirectClub and Warby Parker
- We tried out 7 startups that claim to make it easier and cheaper to go to the doctor. Some fell short of the hype.
- A feud between Amazon's pharmacy and the healthcare industry exemplifies just how disruptive the tech giant could be
