Launch HN: Wyndly (YC W21) – Allergy relief through at-home oral drops

Hi HN! I’m Aakash, and I’m a long time HN reader. My cousin Manan and I are excited to share our startup Wyndly (https://www.wyndly.com) with HN today.

Wyndly is focused on making long-term allergy relief convenient through at-home allergy immunotherapy drops and telemedicine. These personalized oral drops train your immune systems to stop reacting to allergy triggers like pollen, pets, or dust.

Manan is an ear-nose-and-throat surgeon and allergy doctor, and in his physical practice, he’s treated thousands of patients with at-home allergy drops, a form of allergy immunotherapy. During allergy immunotherapy, you gradually introduce your immune system to your allergy triggers. Over time, your immune system learns to tolerate these allergy triggers and stops reacting to them. For patients, this means greatly reduced allergy symptoms and long-term relief [1] without any other medicine for years after patients finish their immunotherapy.

While allergy drops are 80% of allergy immunotherapy in some European countries, in the United States, allergy drops are just 5.9% of allergy immunotherapy prescriptions [2] and are really only available in university hospitals like Johns Hopkins, University of Pittsburgh, and West Virginia University [3] [4] [5].

Part of the reason for their limited availability is physician training, and another part is the health insurance system’s incentives. Most allergy doctors were trained on allergy shots, and prescribe what they are most experienced with. Additionally, health insurance programs incentivize prescribing allergy shots.

In his medical training, Manan trained on both allergy drops and shots. When Manan gave his patients the choice between at-home allergy drops and allergy shots, his patients always chose drops, which are safer, convenient, and don’t require needles [6].

When Covid-19 hit Denver in March 2020, Manan switched all of his allergy drop patients to online care to continue treatment. After shelter-in-place was lifted, his patients continued online care due to the convenience, which told us one thing—patients preferred and were comfortable with telemedicine for allergy care. And that's why we started Wyndly.

We’re trying to make allergy immunotherapy convenient and affordable, so that any one of the 60 million people in America suffering from allergies has the opportunity to get lifelong relief—just like braces straighten your teeth and Lasik fixes your vision.

We’ve done our best to make our patient experience as easy as possible. First, we learn more about you and your allergy history. Then, our medical team creates a personalized treatment plan with treatment sent straight to your door. Most patients notice benefits at 6 months, and some patients have reported allergy symptom relief as early as 6 weeks [7]. Patients lock-in lifelong allergy relief after a few years [1]. Throughout this time, we stay in touch with the patient to work with them towards allergy relief.

Please let us know if you have more questions or feedback. We love talking about the science behind allergy immunotherapy, our treatment model, and what we’re doing. We're happy to answer any questions!

[1] Long-lasting effects of sublingual immunotherapy according to its duration: a 15-year prospective study https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20934206/

[2] Comparison of allergen immunotherapy practice patterns in the United States and Europe https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20084837/

[3] Sublingual Immunotherapy (SLIT) for Allergy Treatment: Johns Hopkins | Q&A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpWomI4iPLY

[4] Benefits of Sublingual Immunotherapy | UPMC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpP41WQ6pBc

[5] Sublingual Immunotherapy: An Alternative to Allergy Shots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THszgnYNM1I

[6] Efficacy and Safety of Subcutaneous and Sublingual Immunotherapy for Allergic Rhinoconjunctivitis and Asthma https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28964530/

[7] Clinical improvement after escalation for sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21938688/

Aakash, what is the intended age for this product? I am asking because I have two younger children with food allergies.

Yes, Wyndly at-home allergy drop immunotherapy does help with cat and dog allergies! Many of our patients come to us because of a small baseline allergy that impacts their quality of life.

One gap in the website that may be deliberate: I don't see any "how long will I be using the drops?" information. You posted it here, but not on the site (or if it's there, it's not obvious).

While I've suffered from allergies my entire life, I don't think I care enough to spend several thousand to probably cure it.

However, it's certainly interesting. Thanks for the information.

Thank you for the feedback!

On total cost: We charge $99/mo. It's hard to give a total cost without knowing more about each person's specific allergy triggers and how well immunotherapy takes for them. Generally, we expect patients to be with us for up 5 years.

On how long treatment lasts: I spoke to this in the total cost section, but it's hard to make a blanket statement.

On our at-home allergy test: We use a CLIA-certified allergy test which is used by allergy doctors across the United States. Specifically, we test for allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (IgE). IgE antibodies are normally found in small amounts in the blood, but higher amounts can be a sign that the body overreacts to allergens. This can lead to an allergic reaction. We don't treat to the test, however. Every patient shares their personal allergy history with their doctor, and the doctor uses both the allergy test and reported allergy history to create the personalized allergy treatment plan.

On food allergies: Wyndly only treats environmental allergies like pollen, pet dander, and dust. We do not treat food allergies. There are a number of promising therapies currently undergoing clinical trials for food allergy oral immunotherapy, and we are optimistically awaiting the results.

UI issues: You're absolutely right, we need to establish trust, and a shoddy website does not help us. We're always trying to improve the UI and UX.

Cookie request: I'm not sure what this is. Can you share a screenshot? It is possible it is from our HIPAA-compliant scheduler which is embedded through an iframe.