Earnings Labs

GoodRx Holdings, Inc. (GDRX)

Q1 2025 Earnings Call· Thu, May 8, 2025

$2.31

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the GoodRx First Quarter 2025 Earnings Call. As a reminder, today's conference is being recorded. I would now like to introduce your host for today's call, Aubrey Reynolds, Director of Investor Relations. Mr. Reynolds, you may begin.

Aubrey Reynolds

Management

Thank you, operator. Good morning everyone and welcome to GoodRx's earnings conference call for the first quarter 2025. Joining me today are Wendy Barnes, our Chief Executive Officer; and Chris McGinnis, our Chief Financial Officer. Before we begin, I'd like to remind everyone that this call will contain forward-looking statements. All statements made on this call that do not relate to matters of historical fact should be considered forward-looking statements, including without limitation, statements regarding management's plans, strategies, goals and objectives, our market opportunity, our anticipated financial performance, underlying trends in our business and industry, including ongoing changes in the pharmacy ecosystem and the impact of our store closures and announced bankruptcy of one of our retail partners on our business, our value proposition, our long-term growth prospects, our retail, our direct and hybrid contracting approach, collaborations and partnerships with third parties, including our point-of-sale cash program and our integrated savings program, our e-commerce strategy and our Capital allocation priorities. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors. These factors, including the factors discussed in the Risk Factor section of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024 and our other filings with the securities and Exchange Commission, could cause actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements made on this call. Any such forward-looking statements represents management's estimates as of the date of this call and we disclaim any obligation to update these statements even if subsequent events cause our views to change. In addition, we will be referencing certain non-GAAP metrics in today's remarks. We have reconciled each non-GAAP metric to the nearest GAAP metric in the company's earnings press release, which can be found in the overview page of our Investor Relations website at investors.goodrx.com. I'd also like to remind everyone that a replay of this call will become available there shortly as well. With that, I'll turn it over to Wendy.

Wendy Barnes

Management

Thank you, Aubrey, and thanks to everyone joining us today. I've now completed my first 100 days as CEO and I want to share progress we've seen in the business, how we're strengthening our foundation and the opportunities ahead. Then Chris will take you through the highlights of our first quarter results and guidance. Since stepping into this role, I have dedicated my time strengthening our leadership team, gaining a deeper understanding of our business, meeting with key partners, understanding the macroeconomic environment and identifying key capabilities and growth opportunities. I can confidently say that we are in a very strong position to deliver meaningful value across the pharmacy ecosystem. Furthermore, we are focused on high impact initiatives that will drive our business forward in compelling ways. I firmly believe that our success starts with having the right individuals in the right roles, knowledgeable leaders who bring vision, expertise and a commitment to our mission. I've made some important leadership changes to strengthen our business. In March, we appointed Aaron Crittenden as President of our RX Marketplace. Aaron previously played a pivotal role in building our Pharma Manufacturer Solutions business and has a track record of scaling partnerships. In this new role, Aaron will focus on expanding GoodRx's presence at the pharmacy counter to streamline workflows, improve pharmacy economics and ensure GoodRx is the first and best choice for consumers at the point-of-sale. He will also be responsible for expanding and reimagining how we work with PBM and health plan partners in an integrated solution to further deliver the value of GoodRx. We also appointed Scott Pope, PharmD as our Chief Pharmacy Officer and Head of Clinical Engagement. Scott will be focused on enhancing GoodRx engagement with all healthcare professionals, or HCPs, doctors, pharmacists, supporting staff and other constituents. Finally,…

Chris McGinnis

Management

Thank you, Wendy, and good morning everyone. For the first quarter, total revenue was in line with our expectations at $203 million, up 3% versus the prior year. Prescription transaction revenue and manufacturer solutions were up 2% and 17% respectively, versus the prior year. For the first quarter, adjusted EBITDA of $69.8 million rose 11% versus the prior year, which constitutes an adjusted EBITDA margin of 34.4%. This is an improvement of 60 basis points compared to the fourth quarter, and while ahead of our expectations for the quarter, we believe this will be within a sustainable range for the remainder of the year. We continue to have a strong balance sheet, ending the quarter with $301 million in cash with $91.7 million of unused capacity on our revolving line of credit, resulting in total liquidity of $392.7 million. During the first quarter, we deployed approximately $100 million of cash on hand to repurchase 23.3 million shares of our stock at an average price of $4.32 per share. Given our stock price, we continue to believe that stock repurchases are accretive and the best use of cash. At the end of the first quarter, approximately $189 million of capacity remained under our $450 million share repurchase program. Turning now to our outlook for the remainder of the year, as we discussed last quarter, Wendy and I are committed to a transparent approach to guidance and given our limited time in our respective roles, we provided a range of outcomes within which we have confidence while providing ample room to adjust as we gain deeper understanding of the business. For the full year 2025, we continue to believe that revenue will be in the range of $810 million to $840 million, representing 2% to 6% growth compared to 2024. There are…

Operator

Operator

Certainly. [Operator Instructions] And one moment for our first question, which comes from Lisa Gill of JPMorgan. Your line is open.

Lisa Gill

Analyst

Thanks very much and good morning. If I could, ask two things. One, Wendy, when I think about bigger picture, you talked about high impact initiatives. I want to just understand what you think are most important. I think you highlighted a few things, whether it's retail, manufacturing, the prescriber, investing in the business, et cetera. But which of those do you think will really drive, what Chris talked about, which is the upper end of the range? And then I know it's hard to put a number around Rite Aid. I appreciate this is all new news. But can you give us from a historical perspective, they have been closing stores, CVS has been closing stores. What has been the rate that you've been able to recapture or maintain that relationship with that consumer when stores have closed? Just to give us an idea of historically if there's a way to think about it.

Wendy Barnes

Management

Yes. Hi, Lisa. Thank you for the question. Good to hear from you. I will start with your first question, noting the strategic initiatives that we've got high confidence in and just can't share additional detail on, on this call. Let me start first with the closer partnerships with retail pharmacies that absolutely would be item number one. And what I mean by that more specifically is directly contracting embedding at the counter where it becomes a much tighter partnership such that we have much better line of sight to capturing those cash prescriptions also included in that e-commerce partnership that you heard me outline. When we're connected in that manner, we effectively become the digital front door for our retail pharmacy partners. And when you point to also manufacturers, it becomes a bit of a triangulation with us sitting at the center if you will. So those brand partnerships as we're continuing to add additional brands to our portfolio where we've got those point-of-sale cash buy downs, we additionally are conveying that value to the retail pharmacy partner. But the additive note there is that now our PBM partners also remain interested in wrapping or auto wrapping those non-covered brands. So it all starts to convey with us at the middle connecting these pieces both to the payer PBM, the retail pharmacy and of course ultimately the consumer ends up benefiting whether or not they are someone standing at the retail counter, separate and aside from their coverage or potentially as an employer beneficiary utilizing their benefit and then finding out that a drug isn't covered when they initially perhaps would have intended to use their coverage at the counter. So it really puts us at the center with an ability to drive those things. And while I can't…

Chris McGinnis

Management

Yes, I appreciate the question, Lisa. I suspect – look, I don't have – we don't have specific data around conversions and retention of those scripts. But to the spirit of your question there is - let's talk about what we do know about Rite Aid. This situation is a little different than past store closures, right. So we now have a process. We know their intention is to sell substantially all their assets and they actually announced the process, right. So they've sought a voluntary bankruptcy process, which does a couple things. And Rite Aid, for its part, announced in its press release that they want continuity of service, right. They want to make sure that patients have access to their prescription medications, and they want a smooth transition. So what that means as a part of the bankruptcy is that a number of bidders will come into that process. In our terminology, we believe that's going to be sort of what we call a file buy, right. They're going to buy the patient's records and transition to a different pharmacy. So working to create a smooth transition. We are already in conversations with some of our retail partners, which we believe will be credible bidders for a portion of these assets and we will work to smoothly transition those scripts. And by smoothly transition, we mean when they take the file over, that is a GoodRx customer and it will come over and it will refill and it will look the same at a new retailer as it did at Rite Aid, right. So to the extent that doesn't happen in terms of a "smooth transition.” Look these are GoodRx customers and they came to our platform to begin with because they were looking for an affordable solution…

Wendy Barnes

Management

Lisa, I would just add on because I suspect this question is going to be on most everyone's mind on the call, again noting that it's less than 5% of our forecast. That would be on a 12 month view. So we're already five months into the year. Clearly all of these prescriptions are going to disappear, right? We know that it's going to be a significantly smaller portion than that. We also don't think this is all going to happen in the next four to six weeks. I mean, this is going to be something that's probably going to be stair stepped over time. Beyond that though, I also do want to reiterate and reemphasize the relationships that we have with pharmacies are in a significantly different place at this point in time than they were last year. We are speaking top to top around those that are interested in obtaining these file buys, perhaps doing so in partnership with some. So we're just in a very different position to be able to take advantage when these scripts transition. I would also note that of our millions of users, the percentage for which we have contactability is materially higher than it was in years past. So we also have the ability to directly communicate to these same consumers, who are filling medications with us. And that was not the case, certainly not as ubiquitously last year as it is today. You also did ask a question as it pertained to, I think, other retail closures. Look, what I would say is some of the others that you've pointed to, they've been in smaller pockets and largely those have been thinning in current markets such that the same retailer largely maintained those scripts and transferred them to themselves, which is also a far different scenario. So as to the few others that you pointed to, nothing material that we would have pointed out that created an impact to us from a closure perspective.

Lisa Gill

Analyst

Thank you.

Wendy Barnes

Management

Thanks, Lisa.

Chris McGinnis

Management

Thanks, Lisa.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question will be coming John Ransom of RJF. Your line is open, John.

John Ransom

Analyst

Hi, good morning everybody. I'm just – on the legacy business, the old model, as you know, was to aggregate all these PBM price out goes mostly from the smaller PBMs. We're seeing the larger PBMs go to cost plus pricing. CVS has said they want to have it all cost plus next year as an example. What do you see with the small PBMs? Are they moving to cost plus for their pharmacy networks? And if so, is that a good guy, a bad guy, or neutral for your legacy model?

Wendy Barnes

Management

Yes, I appreciate the question. Good to hear from you, John. So, to be clear, a significant percentage of our business today already runs on cost plus rails. We're somewhat indifferent to the reimbursement mechanism to the pharmacy. So that actually is kind of the point of clarity there. This is about how the pharmacy gets paid, but it really doesn't overly influence how many drugs aren't covered at the end of the day, that's largely what drives the pool of opportunity for cash prescriptions. And I would also point out that cost plus or not cost plus, when you're in a cost plus environment, notably most base prices tend to increase. And so as a result of that, there's also going to be more pressure on the consumer in their funded plan to create an opportunity for a cash prescription. And as you kind of heard me outline in our first quarterly call, and we're continuing to use similar language, my overall vision for the company is that this cash offering of which we hold the number one position, simply be a complement to insurance. It really shouldn't be an or it should really run alongside as an and. And that is what we’re doing by embedding as e-commerce partners with retailers such that it’s just always going to present itself whenever it’s more compelling from a cost perspective to utilize the cash benefit. And I would also remind you, given the pressure on price, what we know around so many brand medications is that there’s almost one billion prescriptions per year that go unfilled due to price. And so again, that just continues to create a pool of opportunity for us to go after from a cash perspective.

John Ransom

Analyst

Great, thank you. And my other question, the old management team, so I won’t put you make you responsible for this, but they were pretty excited about the theoretical opportunity with GLPs. But as you’ve seen Novo has struck deals with Hims, and they’ve struck deals with CDS. Is that – I know you connect people to the Novo Patient Assistance Programs, but is the GLP opportunity still out there to be had or is that just maybe not going to happen?

Wendy Barnes

Management

No, it absolutely continues to be an opportunity. And again, I very much appreciate the question. So, let’s start first with kind of grounding in what is happening with Novo and Lilly today. So, they’ve both created their own direct programs with their own direct discounted price. And to be clear, the partnerships that have been announced are largely with telemedicine pharmacies or pharmacies inclusive of CVS whereby those pharmacies are effectively redirecting the script to those direct programs at the manufacturer offered price. Having said that, we are continuously dialoguing with Novo and Lilly all the way at the top around how we can continue to be of assistance. So yes, their affordability programs are already embedded in our platform such that we are helping them engage consumers to get to their affordability program. Clearly we’re not a fulfilling pharmacy, so the ability to actually fulfill those scripts isn’t an opportunity for us and they’re doing it through either their own pharmacy or a few select home delivery pharmacies today. So, that’s how they’re approaching the program. And again, I want to be clear though that through those programs it is their own discounted price that only they are honoring. No one at present has a discounted cash point of sale buy down price. I continue to believe there absolutely is an opportunity to get that, but I also believe it’s going to take time for more molecules to launch to put pressure on those manufacturers to produce a cash price buy down at point of sale. Now having said that, with the two large manufacturers out there today, I think, it will probably be evident which one would likely be more receptive to a cash price just knowing where they sit from a market position. And I would…

John Ransom

Analyst

Thanks so much, Wendy.

Wendy Barnes

Management

You’re welcome.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question will be coming from Charles Rhyee of TD Cowen. Your line is open Charles.

Charles Rhyee

Analyst

Thanks for taking the questions. May be to follow-up on John’s question there, Wendy, you just mentioned that the two large manufacturers for GLP1s currently are not offering sort of this cash price book. And the argument that you make to provide a better consumer experience certainly makes sense to me here. What are the reasons that they are not yet kind of moving forward with that perhaps? And I am sure they would understand sort of wanting to provide patients with a better experience as well. What are some of the reasons they’re providing that this is not the right time to do something like that yet?

Wendy Barnes

Management

Yes, I think the short answer is we’re close. To be clear, they do see the value and also clearly understand that their patients, often with the script already in hand, are already looking on our GoodRx platform. I think it’s for a couple of reasons, the first of which is, look, they pretty recently just came out of their supply shortage situation, compounding pretty recently just effectively got put to bed. There have been a number of moving parts here. As such, their direct models continue to make a fair bit of sense, but very soon they won’t as more molecules continue to launch and there is more pressure in this class of drugs that will change the dynamic just like it does in any class of drugs as more molecules launch, which is why I think we’re going to be in a good position to take advantage of that.

Charles Rhyee

Analyst

Okay, that makes sense. And I guess the other question, I think, it was Lisa’s question earlier was, you talked about sort of the opportunity with HCPs. If I remember a year ago, I think, the company had really talked about that the top 10 percentile of HCPs in the network were already driving something like 50% of the max for GoodRx. Is that still the case? And so it seemed like that was a focus already last year. Just trying to understand what wasn’t working last year to drive that further, because it seemed like if you get that next 20% – next decile to perform at the first that would be a meaningful increase. I’m just curious, what are you looking to do differently now that maybe you weren’t doing last year?

Wendy Barnes

Management

Yes, no, good question. Look, first of all, Scott is pretty new in role, as I mentioned, but as we continue to look at the number of HCPs that are engaged with us. So, let’s just start with this year. We’ve already had over 750,000 unique physician and prescriber NPIs engaged on the platform. So, we know that there continues to be more opportunity to engage directly. And of course, you heard us “over one million” in 2024 were engaged. What we know is that that particular audience has over 90% awareness of our brand and so said differently with what we’re doing today, I think, you’ve heard us talk about HCP mode on our platform. We believe that there is a larger opportunity to take advantage of their presence on our pages in partnership with pharma, and we simply aren’t pulling that through today. I think it could look very different depending upon which specific strategies we pursue. We’ve got a list of several items at present that I would really like Scott to share on a future call. But primarily this will Involve partnering with pharma to pull through the engagement we already have with HCPs and monetizing that opportunity.

Charles Rhyee

Analyst

Okay, thank you. Look forward to hearing more about it later.

Wendy Barnes

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And one moment for our next question, which will be coming from Jailendra Singh of Truist Securities. Your line is open.

Jailendra Singh

Analyst

Thank you and good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. So, I want to follow-up on the guidance commentary on having comfort with the lower half of range, how much of that is driven by PMS business? You talked about macro environment. Can you be a little bit more specific? Have you seen any cautionary pharma behavior or less willingness to spend? Or is it that you want to be more prudent given all the uncertainty?

Chris McGinnis

Management

It’s really the latter, Jailendra. So the way, I think, about revenue and you mentioned the pharma solutions business that’s sort of a traditional selling cycle. So, we have conversations with manufacturers and what we’re seeking to do is obviously not only expand the number of manufacturers we’re working with, but obviously penetrate deeper into the drug portfolios of those manufacturers we’re working with. And so that’s a traditional selling cycle where you’re having conversations, you’re deepening the relationship. So we’ve got a funnel – we got a pipeline funnel. We probability weighted so that revenue sort of, you fill and build, right. So you sort of fill the – the funnel, the pipeline, and you bring those deals through the funnel. And so we have to sort of probability weight based on, the pipeline at the beginning of the year. So revenue builds throughout the year. I still have strong conviction that the manufacturing solutions business will be a 20% growth line of business for us. The 17% in the first quarter is sort of like on track for us because it will build throughout the year. So, right now as we just build the revenue profile of the company, I’ve got strong conviction in the lower half of that range and then I think continuing to execute on the core, continuing to drive some of the strategic initiatives that Wendy had outlined, drives us to the upper part of the range.

Jailendra Singh

Analyst

Thank you. And my follow-up, max in the quarter at down mid-single digits, slightly below Street expectation, not sure if anything to highlight there. On the flip side, you clearly saw some better unit economics, which is something you guys expected as mix of lower margin pharmacies fall out of system and drive more revenue per script. How should we think about MAC and revenue per MAC for the rest of the year? How much more runway is left in pushing that revenue per MAC metric higher from current levels?

Chris McGinnis

Management

Yes, I mean – so first of all, I appreciate you calling it out. We alluded to this back in February that we felt like, I know, probably and this is Street’s expectations, this is actually in line with our expectation around MAC. We knew based on some of our strategic alignment around balancing both retail profitability and economics with our core mission of ensuring that patients have access to medication at affordable pricing. There’s a balance there. And so how we ultimately hit that equilibrium of balancing that equation, I think, scripts continue to fall out of the system while that happens and then it gets rebased. And then look, we want to be a growth company ultimately we want to grow those scripts over the long term. But how that sort of lands, is we’re kind of – we still think there’s a little bit of headwind on sort of MAC volume. In terms of the ability to drive the margin profile of those scripts, I still think there is headroom, I think, there is opportunity as we sort of still call out and optimize the right mix that will enhance that margin profile. I think continue to enhance it. But look, the customer is always front and center of everything we’re doing and trying to find that equilibrium and working with our retail partners. But both have to be true. We have to achieve our core mission of making drugs accessible and affordable, but we need a healthy retail network out there, so we want to align to their economics as well. So that’s the strategy. Over the long term we think that will be add the most value to us. But in the meantime it’s probably a little headwind on MAC.

Jailendra Singh

Analyst

Great, thank you.

Operator

Operator

And one moment for our next question. Our next question will be coming from Craig Hettenbach, Morgan Stanley. Your line is open Craig.

Craig Hettenbach

Analyst

Great, thanks. Wendy, can you touch on capital allocation? You’ve been buying back stock and understanding the multiples low, at the same time there is a discussion here kind of wanting to be a growth company. So, how are you thinking about the current portfolio as it is? Are there any other capabilities from a tuck-in perspective that you would consider?

Chris McGinnis

Management

Yes, I mean I’ll take a step first and let Wendy weigh in. So, in terms of capital allocation priorities, obviously we are investing in our business. I mean in terms of you look at our capitalized software continues to go up, we’re continuing to build out suite of capabilities as we integrate further and deeper with both on the pharma side and tie it back to the retail network. So, we’ll continue to spend money on ourselves first and foremost. And then look absent other sort of strategic opportunities that come up given the stock price certainly where it is, we’ll continue to put money back into stock repurchases. It’s just to us it’s highly accretive, the stock is undervalued. And so in terms of returning excess cash to stakeholders right now, we’ll continue to execute against share repo.

Craig Hettenbach

Analyst

Great. And then just as a follow-up, if you were able to do 20% growth in ManSol, I mean that’s a very good outcome, particularly given some of the uncertainty in the pharma. So, can you maybe just talk about what that represents just from a greenfield perspective for you guys, kind of where you’re at with that business and ability for kind of penetration to be able to drive that type of growth.

Wendy Barnes

Management

Yes, so we don’t – this is Wendy, we don’t specifically call out by brand, by manufacturer, obviously publicly what I will tell you is the pipeline is robust, there does continue to be a significant amount of room for growth. We remain convicted at 20% plus for this year. What we also know is that we’re continuing to expand not just the list of brands which is a combination of affordability programs, ad media, we’re also continuing to expand those point-of-sale direct MSA cash buy downs which involve directly negotiating with the manufacturer. And what we’re proving over and over again is an incredibly strong ROI. So what I’m equally excited about is we’re delivering results to the partners we already have. They are broadening their portfolio with us. So it’s also going deeper with those same manufacturers and we’re continuing to increase the deal size with each of those partners. So that’s really where the headroom sits and we continue to be incredibly bullish on that opportunity.

Craig Hettenbach

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And one moment for our next question. Our next question will come from George Hill of Deutsche Bank. Your line is open.

George Hill

Analyst

Hey, good morning, Wendy. I have a question just to make sure I’m thinking about something right. I wanted to talk about Medicare. And with the benefit changes that kick in this year with the maximum out-of-pockets, I would have imagined you would have had Medicare beneficiaries in prior years that hit the – I guess that hit the catastrophic phase that then had a co-insurance payment where they might have tried to use a GoodRx card. And now that they’re going to have a maximum out-of-pocket, they’re going to get to the second quarter, third quarter of this year and they’re not going to have an out-of-pocket component where they might have been looking to use a cash pay card or discount card. I understand the complexities with GoodRx as it relates to Medicare and other government paid businesses, but I guess is there any dynamic that you’re seeing there in the Medicare population and maybe just remind us what your exposure was to Medicare users – at the end of 2024, at the start of 2025.

Wendy Barnes

Management

Sure I appreciate the question, it’s good to hear from you. So, about less than 30% of our users are Medicare eligible, but to be clear, about 2% to 3% tend to hit their MAC or their maximum out-of-pocket or deductible phase. So, I think that the bigger point to think about regardless of the closing of the doughnut hole, is that there will continue to be pressure on these same consumers for where they’re spending their dollars. And ultimately Medicare is also going to be limited on what drugs they in fact do cover. So, there is always going to be a large, large list of drugs that are not covered regardless of what the out-of-pocket is for those that are in fact covered. And so we really don’t see a headwind pertaining to this, we continue to see the overall opportunity for cash use respective or irrespective of whether or not someone is Medicare eligible is growing.

Chris McGinnis

Management

George, just to put a fine point on what Wendy said, when you think about less than a third of our business are Medicare eligible and our data showing less than 3% of those actually hit their MOOP or their max out-of-pocket, that if you extrapolate those two, it’s less than 1% of impact on us for closing that donut hole.

George Hill

Analyst

Maybe if I could have a quick follow-up, you guys have the biosimilar strategy going on with Humira and Boehringer, I guess, can you talk about how effective that’s been given the initiatives by PBMs to be pretty restrictive in the channel, has that been a tailwind or a headwind to execution there?

Wendy Barnes

Management

I appreciate the question. I mean I think we’ve seen reasonable uptake on pricing on the biosim. I mean I think we continue to believe that biosims represent in general and align with our affordability narrative. So, to the extent we can continue to obtain favorable pricing on any of those molecules, we want them to be available on our platform. I think is the short answer, because it conveys a better price point to consumers. And we know overall, particularly in that RA and derm category where biosims first launched, that the uptake in percentage of overall fields of biosims has been increasing nicely. So given that, I think we will continue to pursue contract and pricing for any class of biosims where it makes sense for us.

George Hill

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will be coming from Steven Valiquette of Mizuho Securities. Your line is open, Steven.

Steven Valiquette

Analyst

Thanks. Yes, good morning Wendy and Chris, thanks for taking the question. So, there was a question earlier on the revenue per MAC, which I think, you kind of answered in sort of talking more about margin. But by our math that was up about 7% year-over-year and it was actually the first time in years that actually went up. I was just curious if there were any other factors that drove that metric besides what kind of Jailendra alluded to earlier. I am wondering first, was there a shift in mix to higher priced drugs this year? Are you may be seeing more brand volume versus generic? And I guess also are you seeing just generic inflation in the overall market this year? Just curious if there’s any other variables driving that 7% growth in that revenue per MAC. Thanks.

Chris McGinnis

Management

Yes, thanks Steve. I think you’ve sort of answered it. I think it’s all of the above. It’s mix shift, it’s higher drug use, inflation, it’s just – there is nothing other than that that I would call out specifically that’s driving it other than sort of just a mixed bag of the factors you’ve kind of highlighted.

Steven Valiquette

Analyst

Okay, got it. Okay, that’s it for me. Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our next question will be coming from Allen Lutz of Bank of America. Your line is open.

Allen Lutz

Analyst

Good morning and thanks for taking the questions. I want to follow-up on Steve and Jailendra’s question. Wendy, at the top of the call, I think, that you mentioned that there are higher prices in the GoodRx app. I just want to check to see if that is driving maybe the higher revenue per MAC at all. And then last quarter during the call, you talked about store closures potentially driving the MAC lower. As we think about higher prices and store closures, is there any way to bifurcate between those two what’s driving the MAC in 1Q. Thanks.

Wendy Barnes

Management

Yes. No, I wouldn’t call out a delineation between those two items you just noted. I mean, the primary driver is the mix shift to higher margin or access at the pharmacy counter is again, we seek to bolster and enable the retail pharmacies so that they can continue to fill these prescriptions. But to be clear, we’re absolutely balancing that with a competitive and fair price for the consumer. It’s just in some instances, it might look a little higher than say it did three months ago, but still wildly competitive when you contemplate a cash price as a complement to insurance. But that is the primary driver.

Allen Lutz

Analyst

Okay, thank you very much. And then for my follow-up, the VCRx acquisition in the quarter, can you talk about that a little bit? Is there anything you could share around how many members, how much revenue? And then are the members that you added there included in the MAC at the end of the quarter? Thanks.

Chris McGinnis

Management

Yes. So, in terms of the total revenue profile, it’s immaterial as we called out in the Q, but this was a strategic retail partner that had a cash pay program and it’s private labeled. So, this is really as much about deepening our relationship with that partner and some of the other offerings that we’ve kind of highlighted and announced with this partnership. So, it’s less of about a contribution of revenue and more about deepening a relationship with that strategic partner.

Allen Lutz

Analyst

Great, thank you.

Operator

Operator

And our next question will be coming from Michael Cherny of Leerink Partners. Your line is open.

Michael Cherny

Analyst

Good morning. And congrats on a nice quarter. May be just one for me here on the margin side, as you think about the strong EBITDA performance both in the quarter embedded in the guidance going forward, having taken the full range up for the year, how do you think about the moving pieces for what’s in your control versus market oriented? What I try to mean by that is are you seeing – how much of it is a combination of better pull through on your revenue line items, your improvements year-over-year versus cost containment issues you’re pursuing? So we can understand the durability of what’s obviously been still a fairly strong EBITDA margin beyond this year.

Chris McGinnis

Management

Yes. So it’s certainly a mix of both in terms of revenue and the cost side of the equation. And I don’t have a specific breakout of contribution that’s driving that uplift in the EBITDA, and margin profile and the percentage. But what I would say is in terms of what you ask about what levers in our control, obviously the revenue side is a little – there are components of that that are less within our control. Obviously there is a lot going on, I can’t remember a year quite like this in terms of trying to plan and predict in terms of volatility, consistency and those things. So, I certainly feel like I got a lot more control and more levers to control on the cost side. So I think that’s from a mixed perspective, I think, there is more levers to control there. And I think it will bounce around a little bit. We have some elective spending, I think, we’ll do in the second half of the year. Wendy mentioned continuing to reinvest in our brand. So, I think we’ll see a little bit of marketing spend pick up as the plan right now is a little light in the first quarter, but I think we’ll pick that up in the second half, offset by some operational efficiencies which we’ll continue to press on. I mean we’re just really rolling up our sleeves there. So, I think there’s probably more offsets to be done there. So, we’re committed to being good stewards of shareholder money. We will operate the business as efficiently as possible, but we’re absolutely going to invest in our brand and initiatives that drive future growth of the company. So, lot more control I’d say on that side of the equation.

Wendy Barnes

Management

And I would just add as we think about the strategic opportunities that I believe Lisa may have asked about at the top of the call when we opened Q&A and I was also very purposeful in my remarks on using the word durable. A lot of where we’re investing are in strategic initiatives that deepen a partnership, whether it’s with pharma, the PBM or the retailer. That becomes a little more difficult to unwind when you’re conveying value to all parties in a meaningful way. And given our brand presence, the way we attract consumers, I’m thinking about this in terms of what could a competitor come in and do and potentially supplant. It becomes a little more difficult with the way we’re building some of the things we’re talking about becoming the digital front door and partner and the brand value that we’re conveying, a number of our competitors don’t have to be able to share with retailers or to wrap to those non-covered offerings inside PDM. So that’s how we’re thinking about our strategic pillars. And the word durable again was used purposely for that very reason, because I want these things to become more in our control and more difficult to replace for our partners.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. And our last question will be coming from Daniel Grosslight of Citi. Your line is open Daniel.

Daniel Grosslight

Analyst

Thanks for taking the question and congrats on the strong quarter here. We’ve seen a pretty significant expansion of direct-to-consumer distribution of GLP1s via NovoCare and Lilly Direct. I’m curious as you think about growth in pharma ManSol, and your relationships with Novo and Lilly if there’s an opportunity to become a kind of bigger front door to some of those direct-to-consumer cash pay only programs, whether through Novo or Lilly Direct, particularly thinking about your telehealth assets combined with your pharma distribution strength there. Thanks.

Wendy Barnes

Management

Yes, it’s as if you’ve been sitting in some of my strategic conversations. Timely question. The short answer is yes, we agree with you. We’re having the same conversations with the manufacturers you note and potentially others that may have molecules either in this particular class or in classes that lend themselves to direct programs. Because we know that when any type of program is embedded in our platform compared to a distinct and separate environment that pharma has, it can be anywhere from 5, 10 to 15 times the lift through us as compared to that unique manufacturer program. Again, just because there isn’t a lot of consumer awareness on how to utilize those platforms and we’ve already got the trusted engagement of not only the consumer, but I think, it’s important to also note the HCP. And that again is something we alluded to earlier. They also are looking at these price points in office trying to assist their patients. And we believe that continues to be a pretty large opportunity that candidly we’ve not monetized as well as we should. And so you heard me allude to what will be a much larger strategy there as well. And we do have a partnership with a telehealth provider. We partner with Wheel. We also think there is an opportunity to better leverage that partnership should we contemplate becoming more of that all-encompassing telehealth taking care of the visit in addition to servicing the script.

Daniel Grosslight

Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

And I would now like to turn the call back to Wendy for closing remarks.

Wendy Barnes

Management

Thank you. And a sincere thanks to everyone for joining us today. GoodRx has an exceptional value proposition and market position. We deeply understand the interconnected business relationships that drive consumer medication access and affordability and we are ideally positioned to deliver value to all of our stakeholders by fulfilling our brand purpose to the end consumer, which is a special especially important during times of economic and retailer uncertainty. Thank you again for joining us today.

Operator

Operator

And this concludes today’s conference call. Thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.