Amazon is buying online Pharmacy
PillPack – a move that could disrupt the drug store business. PillPack has
pharmacy licenses in all 50 states. The company delivers medications to
customers in pre-sorted doses designed to make it easier for people to take
multiple medications a day.
Although brick-and-mortar stores
might feel the effects of Amazon's competition, the biggest battles will likely
be fought by the mail-order pharmacies, which generally serve patients with
chronic conditions such as heart disease that may require drugs to control
blood pressure, cholesterol and other problems.
Some of the largest mail order
pharmacies are controlled by pharmacy benefit managers such as Express Scripts
(ESRX.O) and CVS, which offer financial and other incentives to patients to
fill their prescriptions with them. PillPack holds pharmacy licenses in
all 50 states and is authorized to deliver in 49 states and is an in-network
pharmacy for major Medicare Part D plans.
For
consumers, it could be good news if the deal nudges the pharmacy sector into a
heated competition for customers, potentially driving down drug prices.
Prescription drug spending tops $450 billion annually. Amazon's
acquisition of PillPack marks another development in the company's rivalry with
Walmart, which had been rumored to be weighing an acquisition of PillPack.
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