Ro, the American telehealth company best known for connecting patients with virtual prescribers and weight-loss drugs, is launching a research laboratory powered by artificial intelligence to study how its patients fare on treatment — and plans to sell the insights to drugmakers.
Chief executive Zach Reitano announced the unit on Friday, saying the company would use AI to analyse data generated through its digital health platform, which has served millions of patients. The aim, he said, is to give insurers evidence about whether expensive medicines are worth covering, help drugmakers identify which patients benefit most from a given treatment, and improve outcomes for people using Ro’s services.
The move comes as weight-loss drugs known as GLP-1s reshape both medicine and the market for them. Ro offers cash-pay access to Eli Lilly’s Zepbound and Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy through the manufacturers’ direct pharmacies, although eligible patients can also use insurance. The drugs work by mimicking a hormone that regulates hunger, keeping the stomach feeling full for longer.
Reitano said Ro is already in talks with drug manufacturers about partnering with the new research unit. The company entered a research collaboration with Amgen earlier this year to study access to obesity treatments. He did not say when the first findings would be published or how patient data would be protected — details that will matter to regulators and privacy advocates as the unit gets under way.
The business case is clear. Some employers have begun dropping coverage of weight-loss drugs as medical costs rise, and Reitano argued that stronger real-world evidence could persuade insurers of the longer-term health and cost benefits of paying for them. Novo Nordisk’s chief executive, Mike Doustdar, has said future obesity medicines are likely to be tailored to different patient needs — the kind of targeting that real-world data could help to refine.
Ro is part of a wave of telehealth companies — including Hims & Hers and Noom — that have grown rapidly by connecting patients with virtual prescribers and access to GLP-1 drugs. Alongside weight-loss treatment, Ro also sells sexual health, hair loss and skincare treatments.
Sources: Reuters, “Ro launches healthcare research unit, plans to offer data to drugmakers” (6 November 2026), https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/ro-launches-healthcare-research-unit-plans-offer-data-drugmakers-2026-11-06/ — this report is based on a single Reuters account of Ro’s announcement; the company has not yet published further details of the unit’s structure or data policies.
