The e-commerce giant Amazon has reportedly acquired an online pharmacy called PillPack that fill, sort, and deliver all your medications in personalized packets based on when you need to take them.
The amount of the deal is claimed to be roughly around $1 billion in cash for PillPack. This acquisition will give Amazon the ability to ship prescriptions around the country, and overnight.
PillPack is a full-service pharmacy that delivers a better, simpler experience for people managing multiple medications. With the help of PillPack, the customers can contact the pharmacists 24/7, update their medication at any time and also review their bill in your monthly summary.
“PillPack’s visionary team has a combination of deep pharmacy experience and a focus on technology. PillPack is meaningfully improving its customers’ lives, and we want to help them continue making it easy for people to save time, simplify their lives, and feel healthier. We’re excited to see what we can do together on behalf of customers over time,” said Jeff Wilke, Amazon CEO of Worldwide Consumer.
This news of acquisition comes a week after Amazon appointed a CEO for its healthcare joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan. The co-founder and CEO of PillPack, TJ Parker, seems to be staying on to run the business. He stated that the with Amazon association, the company is eager to continue working with partners across the healthcare industry to help people throughout the U.S. who can benefit from a better pharmacy experience.
“Amazon’s acquisition of PillPack is a warning shot in what is about to become a major battle within the pharmacy space,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.
Pharmacy chains and drug wholesalers lost about $14 billion in market value on Thursday, while Amazon gained about $5.5 billion. This deal is sure to give a serious threat to more than $400 billion pharmacy business.