Shoot It Into My Veins: What’s Fueling the Vitamin IV Craze

Forget the vitamin gummy. Mobile IV therapy has moved well beyond hangovers, and a booming longevity industry is fueling its next chapter.

BY MELISSA ANGELL, SENIOR STAFF WRITER @MELISSKAWRITES

A nurse is in my living room filling a 1,000 mL bag with saline, vitamin C, vitamin B-complex, zinc, magnesium, and calcium gluconate, Drip Hydration’s basic immunity boost. With flu season in full swing, it seemed like a reasonable way to get extra protection beyond my regular vaccines. But as the chartreuse liquid flows into my bloodstream, I start to taste something I can only describe as … Cheerios. My heart races. What have I gotten myself into?

Drip Hydration is one of a growing number of mobile IV clinics that come to you — at home, at the office, at a hotel — offering hydration drips alongside wellness options like muscle recovery, headache relief, and energy boosts. CEO Abe Malkin founded the Los Angeles-based company in 2017 after working as a concierge doctor making house calls. Many of his patients were interested in biohacking — using science and self-experimentation to optimize health — and were increasingly requesting vitamin-boosted IV drips.

IV therapy itself is nothing new. Doctors used saline IVs to treat severe dehydration in cholera patients as far back as the 1830s. By the 1950s, softer plastic and Teflon catheters replaced stiff metal ones, making the procedure safer and more practical. IVs are still widely used to deliver treatments like iron infusions and chemotherapy because they bypass the digestive system and deliver directly to the bloodstream for maximum absorption.

But more popularized IV therapy dates to the 1960s, when John Myers came out with the Myers cocktail, a blend of B and C vitamins, zinc, selenium, magnesium, and calcium gluconate. It was originally developed to help with chronic conditions, ranging from asthma to migraines, and adherents claim it fights fatigue, boosts immunity, and increases energy. By the 2010s, mobile IV clinics began appearing in New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and elsewhere, largely catering to bankers and hustle-culture types who needed to entertain clients late into the night while still showing up to work the next morning. In 2014, The New York Times reported on IV Doc, a mobile service offering an IV drip hangover treatment consisting of electrolytes and a choice of nausea, heartburn, or anti-inflammatory medication.

“It’s certainly great for recovery,” says Malkin of these hydration IV treatments. “But I think the market has shifted more toward regular maintenance and sees it as a longevity tool, as opposed to just a recovery tool.”

Direct-to-consumer service

The mobile IV business model is growing as renewed interest in longevity propels the industry forward. Mobile clinics have an upper hand because of low overhead costs and their ability to meet customers where they are. That convenience factor is huge, and many mobile IV clinics use it as a competitive advantage over med spas. “Our model delivers expert care directly to the bedside—anytime, anywhere,” Tyler Payne, the CEO of Vellum Health, a platform for on-demand IVs, said in a written statement. Also moving the industry forward are Americans who are looking for solutions to improve their own health, especially considering that three out of four Americans struggle with at least one chronic condition. 

Drip’s inbound demand allowed it to expand into 60 new cities between 2020 and 2023. In the past two years, Drip has added 20 cities, and is now serving more than 100 U.S. cities. The company employs close to 50 full-time staff members, plus has more than 200 nurses working within its network–the latter being a combination of W-2 employees and contractors. 

Its menu has also expanded throughout the years. Its core IV offerings started with the classic Myers cocktail, along with energy boosts to fend off hangovers, and a more advanced anti-aging offering. Now the company has expanded its offerings to include treatments for various ailments, from stomach flu and jet lag to ketamine and exosome therapies.

Drip is one of the more established players in the IV therapy space. Malkin says the business has grown about 20 percent year-over-year, and while the company doesn’t share revenue details, it services upwards of 5,000 clients IVs each month. Drip’s least expensive IV option clocks in at $249, while its most premium IV treatment costs $999. 

As the demand for IV therapy grows, the services it offers are expanding, particularly into the beauty sector. As consumers look for new modalities to look younger and feel better, they’re trying drips filled with collagen and the antioxidant glutathione, the latter of which helps reduce hyperpigmentation, leading to brighter skin. But there is one core issue, that being that there’s scant scientific evidence that speaks to these benefits—beyond anecdotes, at least. 

“Despite claims that IV therapy can enhance energy, boost immunity, or improve skin health, these purported benefits are primarily anecdotal or based on self-reported outcomes rather than well-designed randomized clinical trials,” researchers from Yale wrote last year. One reason for this might simply be the hydration boost received. 

New entrepreneurs are catching on to consumer interest and operating mobile IV services as a lucrative side hustle. Austin Shuxiao is a practicing internal medicine doctor who launched Peach IV in May last year as an addition to his day job. In his first month, he estimates he made around $2,000 in revenue. By September, his monthly revenue grew to $20,000. The busiest days for Peach, which operates as a small mobile clinic, are the weekends. That’s when, Shuxiao says, people are looking for hangover and recovery drips.

“I would have expected a dropoff during fall and winter, but demand seems to be holding pretty strong, as people searching for immunity and fever/flu-specific IVs,” Shuxiao says. 

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