Travel Medicine · Independent Comparison
Both are online travel medicine with no clinic and no vaccines. Choose Runway if you want the medication shipped to your door and a physician visit. Choose Bidwell if you want a lower total cost and your prescription at your own pharmacy. The core difference is the pricing model: Runway charges a $30 visit plus the medication; Bidwell charges a flat $45 visit and adds no markup to your medication, which you fill at your pharmacy.
| Bidwell Health | Runway Health | |
|---|---|---|
| Visit fee | $45 flat, no subscription | $30 online consultation |
| Medication | Sent to your own pharmacy at the generic cash price, no markup from us | Listed separately and shipped to you (for example altitude $99, malaria $129, traveler's diarrhea $29) |
| Clinician | Nurse practitioner, board-certified, Member of the ISTM | Physician |
| Format | Asynchronous, no video | Online consultation |
| Delivery | Your local pharmacy (you pick it up) | Shipped to your door |
| Vaccines | No, refers to a travel clinic | No (offers an oral typhoid vaccine product) |
Because Runway lists the medication on top of the visit, the honest comparison is the total of both parts. Bidwell's total is the $45 visit plus the generic at your pharmacy.
| Trip need | Bidwell total | Runway total |
|---|---|---|
| Malaria pills (doxycycline) | about $54 to $63 | $159 ($30 + $129) |
| Altitude pills (acetazolamide) | about $60 to $75 | $129 ($30 + $99) |
| Motion sickness (scopolamine) | about $75 to $100 | $129 ($30 + $99) |
| Traveler's diarrhea (azithromycin) | about $50 to $60 | $59 ($30 + $29) |
| Epinephrine (generic auto-injector) | about $215 to $345 | $379 ($30 + $349) |
We are not cheaper by a wide margin on everything, and we will say so. Traveler's diarrhea is about even, and epinephrine is expensive either way because the device itself costs a lot. The gap is largest for malaria and altitude, where the generic is cheap at your pharmacy but marked up when bundled. Full detail is on our travel medication cost page.
Both are online and avoid an in-person clinic, both can prescribe doxycycline or Malarone for an appropriate malaria destination, and neither gives injectable travel vaccines, so for yellow fever or a typhoid shot you still need a travel clinic with either service.
For most trips, yes on total cost. Checked June 19, 2026, Runway charges a $30 online visit plus the medication, shipped to you, while Bidwell charges a flat $45 visit and sends the prescription to your own pharmacy at the generic price. Because Runway's listed medication prices are higher than the generic cash price, the totals usually favor Bidwell for malaria and altitude, and run about even for traveler's diarrhea. The trade-off is that Runway ships the medication to your door.
Runway ships the medication to your home, so you do not have to visit a pharmacy, and its visits are with a physician. Bidwell sends the prescription to your own pharmacy and is nurse-practitioner-led. If shipped medication or a physician visit matters most to you, Runway is a reasonable choice.
On price, Bidwell is usually lower for malaria: checked June 19, 2026, a doxycycline course runs about $54 to $63 total at Bidwell (the $45 visit plus the generic at your pharmacy) versus $159 at Runway ($30 visit plus $129 for the medication). On convenience, Runway ships the pills to you. Both can prescribe doxycycline or Malarone for an appropriate destination.
Both are online travel medicine with no in-person clinic, and neither gives vaccines. The differences are the pricing model (Bidwell's flat $45 visit with your generic at the pharmacy versus Runway's $30 visit plus a marked-up shipped medication), the clinician (nurse practitioner versus physician), and delivery (your pharmacy versus shipped to your door).