Purpose-Built: The Story Behind Crux

Modern medicine has ushered in a new era of scientific breakthroughs, where extraordinary, life-altering therapies like GLP-1s and next-generation biologics are enabling people to live longer, healthier, more fulfilling lives. Yet, for most Americans, these innovations remain frustratingly out of reach—not because they’re scarce, but because of the economics of employer-sponsored pharmacy benefits, which keep the cost of advanced, in-demand therapies unnecessarily high.   

For more than half a century, employers have relied on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and traditional insurance models to deliver healthcare benefits, manage prescription drug plans, process and adjudicate pharmacy claims, and control spending. But this system was built for a very different time when prescription drugs were less expensive and scientific innovation occurred at a much slower pace. Today, as paradigm-shifting therapies enter the market faster than ever before, the outdated PBM system can’t keep up. Utilization management requirements, onerous reimbursement processes, opaque fee structures are driving costs without delivering value for U.S. employers who want to cover them. 

Co-founded by Grant Verstandig, Chip Nash, and Naimish Patel, Crux is a benefits platform built to give employers a new and better way to cover transformative medications, starting with GLP-1s for obesity management.

Launched by Red Cell Partners with $6.5 million in pre-seed funding, Crux helps employers access pharmaceutical manufacturers’ direct pricing. Unlike traditional pharmacy benefits that flow through PBMs, Crux serves as a no-fee benefit for employers, contracting directly with leading pharmaceutical manufacturers and passing their pricing through to employers at cost, with no markups, rebates, or hidden costs. Employers can fund the benefit through a tax-advantaged health reimbursement arrangement to further reduce out-of-pocket expenses for their workers. In turn, employees can access covered medications without having to endure open-enrollment restrictions, prior-authorization requirements, reimbursement hurdles, mandatory therapy, or coaching programs. 

“Crux was built to reinvent how transformative drugs reach employees and to ensure access is determined by need and value, rather than by rebates, intermediaries, and outdated incentives,” Nash said. “We’ve started with the GLP-s for weight management, but we’re adding more  pharmaceutical partners to expand access to the next generation of breakthrough therapies for working Americans.”

If any group can make Crux’s vision a reality, it’s the Crux leadership team. Having spent years working side by side at Rally Health, where they helped build and scale one of the most influential digital health platforms in the United States, the team witnessed firsthand how employer-sponsored pharmacy benefits truly operate, navigating the system’s constraints from the inside. Through their experiences, they have come together to build something fundamentally better. The team includes:

• Grant Verstandig, Co-founder & Executive Chairman: Grant was the founder and CEO of Rally Health, a consumer-centric digital health company acquired by UnitedHealth Group in 2017. After its acquisition, Verstandig served as UHG’s Chief Digital Officer, responsible for the strategic direction, governance, and performance of digital platforms. He has since founded multiple companies in the healthcare and national security sectors, including Red Cell Partners.
• Chip Nash, Co-founder & CEO: Chip built Crux from discovery through launch, assembling the team, establishing pharma partnerships, and leading the company to market. He brings more than 20 years of experience in digital healthcare and product leadership, including joining Rally Health as employee #3 to help scale the company across the employer, commercial payor, and Medicare markets into the largest incentives platform in healthcare, processing more than $2 billion of incentives.
• Naimish Patel, Co-founder: Naimish is the former Vice President and General Manager of Enterprise Solutions at Optum, a division of UnitedHealth Group, and was employee #1 at Rally Health. At Rally, he held numerous leadership roles as a growth leader across all business segments and was responsible for scaling the organization to over $1 billion in revenue.
• Troy Burton, Vice President of Product Strategy: Troy was Vice President of Product at Rally/Optum where he was responsible for ideation and innovation of digital products within large, complex, cross-functional engineering environments, including digital consumer wellness, onboarding, activation, engagement, rewards, and loyalty.
• Mike Leahy, Head of Engineering: Mike was the Senior Director of Engineering at Optum and spent over seven years at Rally Health in progressive leadership roles. He led a 75-person engineering team that built and scaled Rally’s incentives platform, processing 2.5 million daily events.
• Sara Mermey, Head of Product: Sara previously served as Head of Product atAluna. Before that, she spent over six years at Rally Health/Optum in product leadership roles, where she built and scaled digital health products, gaining deep expertise in patient engagement and healthcare technology platforms.
•  Shweta Raman, Head of Operations: Shweta previously served as Senior Director of Technology Operations at Lark Health. She spent over six years at Rally Health in progressive project and program management roles, where she built the technical program management office and established processes that supported planning and execution, enabling the company to rapidly scale.
• Shelly Scallon, Head of Client Relations: Shelly previously served as SVP of Strategic Accounts at DUOS. Prior to that, she worked at Rally Health for more than seven years overseeing client management and personally managing the largest employer accounts. 

Fueled by its commitment to improving accessibility, the Crux team is building a future where medical innovation reaches everyone it was meant to serve. 

“The next generation of medical breakthroughs, across cardiometabolic disease, oncology, immunology, and biologics, will have an even greater impact on people’s lives,” Nash said. “Crux exists to ensure the promise of these life-changing therapies reaches everyday working Americans and not only a privileged few.”