Part of the series: 30 Founders Shaping the Future of Wellness in 2025

In a world where antibiotic resistance is on the rise and healthcare systems are stretched thin, smarter, data-backed solutions are more essential than ever. Enter EZC Pak—a physician-formulated 5-day immune support pack that’s helping both patients and providers rethink how we treat common illnesses.

At the helm of this movement is Dr. Sarath Malepati, a surgeon, public health advocate, and founder of EZC Pak. His work is reframing how we approach respiratory infections by reducing unnecessary antibiotic use and empowering consumers through education and accessible care tools.

Meet Dr. Sarath Malepati, a Founder Shaping the Future of Immune Health

1. What inspired you to create the EZC Pak, and how does it address the challenges of antibiotic overuse in upper respiratory infections?

Prior to my clinical training, I worked in a healthcare policy capacity in Washington, DC, where I became interested in how flaws in the design and delivery of healthcare contributed to patient disease. This is called “iatrogenic disease” and refers to diseases or conditions that are a result of exposure to medical treatment or care. A common situation is a patient coming into the healthcare system with one issue and developing a new problem as a result of the care they received. These are generally not intentional, but it is not ideal.

This issue of iatrogenic disease came up in my practice, where there has been increasing difficulty with managing patient exposure to drug-resistant infections or “superbugs”. In these situations, antibiotic options can be limited and patients sometimes end up needing more invasive treatments to surgically remove worsening infections. On the healthcare side of the problem, the medical error of providers overusing antibiotics along with the spread of infections from within healthcare settings that this practice promotes has been a major contributor to the problem.

Upper respiratory infections are the most common infection on the planet. Adults get on average 2-3 per year and children even more. Eight out of every ten of these infections are caused by viruses. Antibiotics do not treat viruses. In some cases, like sinusitis, 98% of the infections are viruses. So there is a relatively limited role for antibiotic use in sinus infections. Yet, the over-prescription of antibiotics for viruses in the outpatient healthcare setting, including growing telemedicine, remains an enormous problem. The problem was dramatically worse during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, where antibiotic misuse surged. Providers cite patient expectation as a key contributor and have requested more tools and education materials to address inappropriate antibiotic requests. So that’s where EZC Pak came from.

The concept behind EZC Pak and its related education materials was to address this overuse of antibiotics issue in upper respiratory infections by taking the best available clinical data in its core components and creating a tangible 5-day tool for providers and patients to use. The product itself is a more appropriate immune system support solution to the patient’s issue at hand, while also inherently being an educational tool to begin understanding the difference between bacteria and viruses and when an antibiotic may be necessary during the course of an upper respiratory infection.

2. How have patients and healthcare providers responded to the use of EZC Pak as an alternative to unnecessary antibiotic prescriptions?

EZC Pak usage grew significantly during the COVID pandemic as it became a go-to product conveniently available over the counter and online without a prescription. This led to a public, NIH-registered double-blind, randomized controlled trial that showed statistically significant reductions in symptom severity & illness duration and enhanced patient satisfaction. The study was published open access and available on PubMed.

3. In what ways do you envision EZC Pak contributing to public education and awareness around antimicrobial resistance and responsible immune support?

EZC Pak’s growth speaks to the larger trend of self-directed care in US healthcare. High costs, limited access to providers, the general risks of iatrogenic disease, and the continued growth in consumer technology innovation will continue to push medicine towards self-directed care wherever possible. This will especially be the case in the primary care domain in the early stages.

An important key for self-directed care to be successful is health literacy. This requires good support tools that allow the patient to determine what can safely be managed by themselves and when to access higher levels of the healthcare system for more support. For these tools to be helpful and effective, the data being inputted must be of a high quality. In the age of misinformation and fake news, you can quickly see how this can be a difficult problem.

On the flip side of antibiotics, vitamin products and immune related supplements are also commonly overused. Most are not necessary, certainly not to be used on a daily basis, and generally not formulated based on meaningful data. My concern with their daily or chronic use is the development of immune tolerance. So in cases where you would potentially benefit from short term immune support, it does not work. The secret is living in a balanced manner. From a health perspective, this requires appreciating that the right medicine at the right time is best.

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Learn more:

https://www.ezcpak.com/

https://www.facebook.com/ezcpak

https://www.instagram.com/ezcpak/

https://www.youtube.com/@ezcpak1173

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