Amazon has just launched Amazon Pharmacy which complements the existing Amazon Pillpack service and this was enough to disrupt the pharmaceutical sector.
For now, Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon Pillpack will only be available in the US, but their scope is groundbreaking.
Amazon Pharmacy and Amazon Pillpack
Amazon Pharmacy simply allows the purchase of drugs online, obviously at the lowest price available, and with a fine discount of 80% for those who are registered with Amazon Prime. In some cases, the purchase requires medical prescriptions, which must be sent to Amazon, or Amazon itself will ask the doctors for them. The medicines arrive directly to your home, in an ordinary Amazon parcel. For Amazon Prime subscribers, shipping is free and guaranteed within two days.
In addition, Amazon makes pharmacists available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Purchases can also be made by charging them to insurance companies. In short, Amazon Pharmacy is a complete service. In addition, it gives the user the possibility to view the history of their pharmaceutical purchases and prescriptions.
Amazon Pillpack goes even further. The service takes its name from the specialist company Pillpack, which Amazon had already acquired in 2018. Pillpack was precisely responsible for delivering medicines to the chronically ill. Amazon Pillpack is continuing along this path, which is mainly intended for people who regularly take medication, and who receive the drugs they need at home every month.
The service includes registration in which users also communicate the name of their doctor and their insurance policy. Pillpack takes care of the shipment of the necessary medicines following prescriptions and interviews with doctors, and handles periodic deliveries (mostly monthly). Users do not have to worry about anything. Every month they will receive the medicines they need, in the right quantity, with instructions on how to take them. No more files, no more waiting.
Shipping times are slower and take up to two weeks, but in urgent cases, Amazon can speed up as usual. The shipping service is free, users basically only pay for medication (unless it is covered by insurance).
Amazon on the market
The launch of Amazon Pharmacy caused a kind of earthquake on the stock exchange, where the shares of the pharmaceutical giants sank. Amazon, on the other hand, continues its run and is now trading at $3,100 on the Nasdaq.
The year 2020 for Amazon has been stellar: its price has gone from $1898 to the top of $3,552 in August, practically doubling its value since the beginning of the year.
Amazon’s boom is certainly attributable to the lockdown that has led many people to buy online, even those who were not accustomed to this practice.
With Pharmacy Jeff Bezos intends to take advantage of this trend in online shopping. But the fear is that it may also put pharmacies in crisis, just as it has affected so many shops and physical shopping centres.
