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Businesses Medicine The Almighty Buck United States

Amazon Buys PillPack, an Online Pharmacy, For Just Under $1 Billion (techcrunch.com) 49

Posted by BeauHD from the one-click-away dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from TechCrunch: A week after appointing a CEO for its healthcare joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan, Amazon today announced an acquisition that underscores how it also hopes to have a more direct -- and more commercial -- role in the world of healthcare in the coming years. The company has purchased PillPack, an online pharmacy the lets users buy medications in pre-made doses. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed by Amazon, but sources close to the deal say it was for just under $1 billion.

PillPack has a license to operate in all 50 states in the U.S. and has other accreditations such as URAC AND VIPPS, but it doesn't seem to be operational in international markets. Its PharmacyOS -- the system it has built that forms the basis of the company -- is a platform that helps manage patient data and figure out how to balance meds together in safe doses for its customers.
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Amazon Buys PillPack, an Online Pharmacy, For Just Under $1 Billion More

Amazon Buys PillPack, an Online Pharmacy, For Just Under $1 Billion

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  • That's going to go well with AmazonOS, FireOS, AlexaOS, ShippingOS, DroneOS and UnderpaidminionsOS!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MAXOMENOS ( 9802 )

      Wait....minions come with an API?

      This is GREAT NEWS!

    • That's going to go well with AmazonOS, FireOS, AlexaOS, ShippingOS, DroneOS and UnderpaidminionsOS!

      MalpractOS

      • That's going to go well with AmazonOS, FireOS, AlexaOS, ShippingOS, DroneOS and UnderpaidminionsOS!

        MalpractOS

        I'm pretty sure Elizabeth Holmes already has the last one covered.

    • Alexa actually knows more about you than your doctor. She sees how you live, your sleep cycles, food you order, the vocabulary you use, and how much excersize you get. So the idea she could also notice changes and diagnose things isn't crazy. Just add something like the apple watch to monitor pulse, blood oxygen, temperature, perspiration, and heart rythms. And a scales.

      • Alexa actually knows more about you than your doctor. She sees how you live, your sleep cycles, food you order, the vocabulary you use, and how much exercise you get. ...

        Alexa is Santa?

        (I'm going to ask her for a pony.)

  • Prescription drugs are a huge chunk of their business - and now Amazon is moving into that space. Other than that, they sell OTC products, photo services, and some knick-knacks. I'm not saying that Amazon is an existential threat to them, but...look at what happened to chain bookstores.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by EvilSS ( 557649 )
      Well their stocks sure are. CVS, Walgreens, and Rite-Aid stocks all dropped after the news.

      • Walgreen's online pharmacy sucks balls. They should be very fearful of any real competition, especially from a company known to do things right.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        It'd be like getting an oil change for your car at Olive Garden.

        Shit ... I hope they used motor oil and not olive oil in my ... uh, friend's ... car.

        I gotta go check on something, bbl.

    • Unless Amazon figures out how to make their shipping reliable again, I can't see this succeeding. Most of the time people don't have a week-wide window for receipt of their drugs.

      • Amazon could probably buy up spaces in malls or other retail locations that have gone out of business over the last several years and create shipping centers where people can pick up shipments if they can't reliably get it at home. Either that or they just store stuff there and do last mile deliveries themselves during the hours that people are actually home. There're plenty of people who want to be Uber drivers during those hours, so I could see Amazon being able to find people willing to do the work.

        • Yeah... and after that, they could just start storing the goods they have for sale in those spaces, where people could actually come and look at them and maybe even try them out before making their purchases.

          I think you might be on to something here!

      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • I am boycotting Walgreens due to their willingness to hire pharmacists who can refuse to dispense medications based on their religious beliefs. Everyone (rational) should boycott them.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sjbe ( 173966 )

          When I need my prescription refilled, I just text my pharmacist (my daughter) at Walgreens and tell her when I can be there to pick it up. She responds with an "OK" and tells me how much it will be. Doesn't everyone have a pharmacist in the family?

          So you support your daughter - as you should. If my daughter was a pharmacist that's the route I'd go too. Hopefully your daughter isn't this asshat [daily-journal.com] that works for Walgreens.

          Amazon's delivery is so unreliable that I'd NEVER trust my health to it.

          You admit in the previous sentence that you rely on a family member so please don't pretend to be objective here. I ordered nearly 200 deliveries last year and if there is a more reliable company for delivery of products purchased online than Amazon I sure haven't found them. And I doubt Amazon would deny someone their medications l

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by MAXOMENOS ( 9802 )
        Amazon's two-day shipping has been pretty reliable for me. Then again, I live in a major metropolitan area. I suppose if I lived in the boonies it might be different.
        • I live in a very minor metropolitan area, and I almost never have problems with Amazon delivery. I order, it appears two days later. I think they miss it about once a year, and then typically only by one day.

      • Unless Amazon figures out how to make their shipping reliable again, I can't see this succeeding.

        I buy stuff from Amazon several times a week and so do most of my co-workers (both for business and personal). If there is an online company that is more reliable out regarding deliveries I haven't found them. No they aren't perfect but they do a DAMN good job. If they didn't they wouldn't be as large as they are.

        Most of the time people don't have a week-wide window for receipt of their drugs.

        Let me guess, you aren't a Prime member right? Virtually everything I order arrives in 2 days or less and if it will take longer they tell you in advance. Amazon has this stuff figured out jus

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:That's old news already. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by crow ( 16139 ) on Thursday June 28, 2018 @04:08PM (#56861692) Homepage Journal

      The big news would be if they bought a generic drug manufacturer.

    • then next week, they're buying Apple, IBM, Sony, Toyota, Volkswagen, and the company that makes all pens and most pencils. What do they not own yet?

      Nah . . . Amazon doesn't want to outright buy an automobile manufacturer . . . then they would be stuck with the product liability. That's something Amazon explicitly wants to avoid. They are just a "marketplace" or "re-seller". If you have any problems with something you have bought on Amazon . . . you need to chase down the supplier in China.

      However, I could see them selling cars. Then they could get a good chunk of the sales commission, and leave all the problems to the manufacturer.

      Car dealerships

      • "If you have any problems with something you have bought on Amazon . . . you need to chase down the supplier in China." Personally, I only buy stuff that is Prime Eligible from Amazon. I specifically use that filter every time I search. The odd occasion I have had a problem with a product, the Chinese supplier has been phenomenal, like surprisingly quick to respond and fix the issue. The English is a bit off, but that's expected and hasn't detracted from the customer experience.

        Only one time I had a

      • They are just a "marketplace" or "re-seller". If you have any problems with something you have bought on Amazon . . . you need to chase down the supplier in China.

        You are aware that Amazon sells their own branded good right? Fire tablets, Kindle, Amazon Basics, a variety of goods through Whole Foods, etc. They are definitively not just a reseller.

  • Just what we needed (Score:4)

    by ausekilis ( 1513635 ) on Thursday June 28, 2018 @03:58PM (#56861634)

    Cheap knock-off drugs posing as the real-deal.
    I can see the reviews now: "This pill is slightly blue-er than my typical prescription. Normally I just spend the afternoon having full conversations with my dog. This time I he actually talked back! Added bonus the lawn was on fire and walls were swirling. 3 stars."

    • Off-brand medication is the better choice nearly 100% of the time. The active ingredient is what you're buying. So long as it has the same amount per dose, and the same delivery method (gel capsule, pill, injection, etc.), the effect will be the same. So yes, cheap knockoff medicine is *exactly* what we need.

      • That's not all of it. Occasionally people have reactions to the non-active ingredients in generics so there is a purpose to still prescribing the on-brand versions.

      • Nearly 100% of the time, but not all.

        Some doses depend on the rate at which the drug becomes available to the body.

        It's possible to adjust the dose to match the rate at which the pill dissolves (and hence control the uptake of the drug) but then a change to a different supplier by the pharmacist may put the dose off.

      • Generics are allowed to have anywhere from 80%-125% of the bioavailablity of the brand drug (IIRC, but it's not far off that if I'm wrong).

        IF you can get the generic from the same manufacturer every time, this is no big deal - but for certain classes of drugs (antiepileptics are famous for this), you spend a lot of time titrating a drug to the point where it does the job with tolerable side effects. So while it doesn't really matter if you get the brand or a generic, you have to be sure you're getting you

    • Amazon Basics Viagra - 250 pack for $9.99

    • it's an actual pharmacy. It'll be heavily regulated. The issue is Amazon's taking over. Eventually they'll run everything out of business and when they do they'll jack up the prices. If we were a sane country we'd respond with regulation but, well, Americans are nuts.

      • what do you mean jack up the prices? ever look at the reciept from Walgreens and see "insurance saved you $600", on a generic? Medicine is in more need of reform than anything.

  • Jeff Bezos is going to go to outer space too... (Score:3)

    by decep ( 137319 ) on Thursday June 28, 2018 @04:28PM (#56861760)

    He's just not going to use a spaceship to get there.

  • "a platform that helps manage patient data and figure out how to balance meds together in safe doses for its customers"

    Isn't this what doctors that get the big bucks to prescribe those medications are supposed to do?

    • News flash: doctors whose primary business is prescribing don't make the big bucks. The money is in procedures.

      And what you're describing is really a pharmacist's job - figuring out how to administer a set of prescriptions in a logical way. Almost nobody who is on more than three medications gets them all from the same doctor. This service (which I think is brilliant, really) takes a set of prescriptions and organizes them into groups of drugs that will not interfere with each other, whose side effects wil

  • Is PharmacyOS vulnerable to the recent Intel vulnerabilities?

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