After years of industry talk, Amazon has formally entered the retail pharmacy market with the launch of Amazon Pharmacy.
Amazon have stated this week that the new online store, located at amazon.com/pharmacy, enables customers to complete an entire pharmacy transaction on their desktop computer or via the Amazon App on a mobile device. After setting up a secure pharmacy profile and adding insurance information, customers can ask their prescriber to send new or current drug prescriptions directly to Amazon Pharmacy for fulfilment, choose payment options before checking out and manage their medications.
"Prime members can get up to 80% off generic drugs and 40% off brand-name medications at Amazon Pharmacy and at more than 50,000 other participating pharmacies."
Amazon Pharmacy also brings more benefits to members of Amazon's Prime customer program. When paying for prescriptions without insurance, Prime members can get up to 80% off generic drugs and 40% off brand-name medications at Amazon Pharmacy and at more than 50,000 other participating pharmacies. In addition, the Amazon Prime prescription savings benefit includes unlimited, free two-day delivery on orders from Amazon Pharmacy. Speculation about Amazon launching its own retail pharmacy business has been rife since its 2017 acquisition of Whole Foods Market. Just as that deal propelled Amazon into the brick-and-mortar grocery market, industry observers predicted that the e-tail giant would soon jump into the pharmacy arena in some form. The expectation was so high that stock prices for the leading U.S. drug chains fell after Amazon announced the Whole Foods purchase, and the impact of a potential Amazon pharmacy market entry has since remained baked into their shares.
