Media Moves

Amazon opens online drugstore

November 18, 2020

Posted by Erica Thompson

Amazon has launched its own drugstore that will deliver prescription medications.

Jonathan Shieber and Ingrid Lunden from TechCrunch reported:

A little over two years after its $753 million acquisition of the prescription medicine delivery service PillPack, Amazon has finally launched Amazon Pharmacy, its online and mobile prescription medication ordering and fulfillment service.

Using a secure pharmacy profile, customers can add their insurance information, manage prescriptions and choose payment options all through Amazon’s  service.

Business Insider’s Emily Graffeo wrote:

Amazon’s digital pharmacy could be a trillion-dollar global opportunity for the e-commerce giant, and could bring in noticeably more profit than previous acquisitions, according to D.A. Davidson’s Tom Forte.

“My question for Amazon is ‘What took you so long?’ I think this is a great move by Amazon,” the senior research analyst told Bloomberg Surveillance on Tuesday

He added that a company like Amazon, that currently has a market capitalization of over $1.5 trillion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 184.62, and a share price up 71% year-to-date, needs to make deals like this to sustain its growth.

Andria Cheng from Forbes warned the move would endanger other drugstores:

While nearly 70% of consumers who regularly take prescription medication said they pick up prescriptions at their local pharmacies with 29% saying they get it by mail, almost three-fifths of Amazon Prime members said they would consider having their prescriptions delivered by Amazon if the service was to became available, according to a Cowen & Co.’s COWN 0.0% survey of 2,500 consumers in September.

The survey found some 42% of consumers take prescription medication regularly for an ongoing condition. 

 

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