MediCircle drives down the cost of cancer treatment
We connect unused oral cancer medications to patients.
Our Mission
Ensure that everyone has access to affordable,
life-saving medications.
We have created a sustainable system where patients can safely receive their medications. By collecting unused, sealed medications, we deliver high-quality care at a fraction of the cost. Patients and their families can focus on beating cancer without worrying about treatment prices.
Press
“...revolutionizing health care equity by minimizing this waste. The startup connects unopened medications to patients in need.”
- The Boston Globe
Meet the Team
Jack Schaeffer
Founder & CEO
Jack is a successful entrepreneur committed to addressing disparities and has experience redistributing medication. Jack consulted for Save One Life, which has redistributed $167mm+ worth of hemophilia factor abroad. He founded the Lincoln Hall Project, which continues to provide 3000+ immigrant detainee children with athletic enrichment, vocational and ESL classes, as well as financial support. He also founded The Podo Project, which upcycles tires from landfills of India into sandals to address a local pandemic in Ethiopia called Podoconiosis, which is caused by lack of access to adequate footwear. He received his business certification from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth and his B.A. in Applied Mathematics, Economics, and Entrepreneurship from Brown University.
Jack works on MediCircle to honor his grandfather, Don Schaeffer, who he lost to colon cancer, and his middle school friend, Ben Landel, who passed to carcinoma at 17.
Eliza Sternlicht
Founder & COO
Eliza is a biomedical engineer and an innovator in the healthcare space. She focuses on increasing healthcare accessibility and strives to bring cutting-edge technology to lower-resource settings. Eliza has created award-winning low-cost video laryngoscopes, 3D-printed prosthetics, dual-chamber syringes to deliver anesthetics and vaccines, novel gynecological devices and training models, and an ambulatory EEG for epilepsy diagnosis and treatment. She has previously coded medication databases for successful startups. She received her B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Brown University and completed EMT training.
Eliza lost her godmother, Frances “Rose” Stanley, to a six-year battle with ovarian cancer in 2020 when the cancer spread to her lungs. Eliza has dedicated her life to addressing the accessibility of healthcare to honor her legacy.
A Founding Story Rooted in Patients' Needs
The extent of pharmaceutical waste in the U.S. became apparent to MediCircle’s co-founder, Eliza Sternlicht while conducting research at Tufts Medical Center. When observing surgery, Eliza noticed that vials of sealed medications were disposed of after their exterior packaging was opened; the bottles were no longer sterile, although their contents were still viable.
In response, Eliza sent a follow-up survey regarding areas for innovation in healthcare, which 114 doctors completed. 56% of respondents said that waste management faced the greatest unmet need in their industry.
After seeing an overwhelming demand, Eliza and her co-founder Jack Schaeffer visited nursing homes and hospitals across Rhode Island. They saw a clear pattern: patients could not afford their cancer medication. To reduce their expenses, patients cut their pills in half to extend their prescriptions, moved away from their loved ones to live in cheaper housing, or entirely forwent treatment. When Jack and Eliza visited the pharmacies of these facilities, they saw waste bins filled with the medications that patients needed, unused and unopened.
Jack and Eliza knew they had discovered a problem and founded MediCircle to help patients afford their cancer medications through pharmaceutical redistribution.
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