Meanwhile, CVS + Walgreens lost $6B in market cap on the news Amazon is moving directly into pharmacy space.

It's crazy how competitive Wall Street views Amazon moving into a market; have there been examples of Amazon making a large purchase/move but completely failing? (sure there are, just not coming me off the top of my head)

What about the environmental impact of the PillPack packaging strategy?

http://assets.coolhunting.com/coolhunting/mt_asset_cache/201...

(note: above image is of an already mostly empty PP box, they often come stuffed completely full)

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Jz4Xw7Xs-Fxnige1c2qnDlez-c0=...

I used PillPack a few years ago, and appreciated the reliable auto-refill (in fact their behavior was borderline insanely aggressive, which was fine by me).

However, the volume of single-use plastic trash created by the way PillPack does packaging was downright excessive, and I felt so guilty about it I deactivated my account. It is less convenient now, but after going back to using typical mail-order and local B&M pharmacies in town the process results in approximately 10-20% of the amount of trash.

See the images linked above as examples of what comes with each shipment - it's a plastic case full of little plastic pouches. There is 1 plastic pouch per dose of medication, and the plastic pouches are wound tightly inside. The volume of single-use plastic adds up rather quickly with PillPack.

EDIT:

Why all the downvotes? "Internet points" are unimportant, but it is curious and unsettling to see information about wasteful high-pollution corporate practices deep-sixed.

i see a lot of comments here of people worrying about counterfeit pills distributed on Amazon. A counterfeit drug in USA is a ticket straight to jail, but a counterfeit mug or yoga mat isn't such a big deal. I wouldn't worry about it so much especially because it's not an open marketplace since Amazon will use Pillback as the distributor

This is interesting because Amazon isn't exactly known for supply chain integrity. Who here hasn't received fakes from Amazon? If you rely on a specific medication for your health, is Amazon a brand you trust to deliver it? How long until they start commingling pills and shipping random counterfeit/fake product to users?

Hope it never happens but if they do with pharmaceuticals what they did with everything else they sell, it's only a matter of time before users are physically harmed.

Let's be optimistic though, I hope this helps them finally get their shit together and control the rampant counterfeiting going on right under their nose.

I interviewed at Pillpack years ago and was very impressed but didn't get the gig. They seemed to be solving a great problem for customers using multiple medicines. I am not sure the solution works well for the millions of us taking one pill every night, e.g the "pillpack" is wasteful.

It also doesn't address this really annoying problem I have getting my daughter's ADD meds. These require a paper prescription that must be hand couriered to the local CVS. A giant PITA.

Congrats to Techstars Boston and the first unicorn exit of a Techstars company! Awesome news

Just an FYI. I measured the inside temp of my mailbox in August’s once and it was 150 degrees. You want to be careful getting medications in the mail.

Pillpack is a very useful service, particularly for people who take multiple medications. You get a little pack with the date printed on it so you never have that "did I take my pills this morning?" question. Their pricing is fine, and delivery is always on-time.

Only problem I've seen is that they often (and I mean OFTEN) forget to apply medication savings cards, which adds up to quite a lot of money. I had to complain about this eight or nine times and ultimately escalated to one of their founders, a guy by the name of Eliot, to get this addressed. However, they may have fixed the problem as they haven't overcharged me so far in 2018.

Prices are set by insurance and shipping is already free so I can't see how Amazon would improve on that. I imagine their margins are razor-thin, but it's pretty clear this sort of service will be how everybody gets their medicine in the next couple of years so the volume makes sense for Amazon.

Just another step in dominance for Amazon. Pretty soon you will be able to upload your prescriptions to Amazon and Prime Now will deliver within an hour, for $8.99

Hopefully Amazon will be able to get rid of express scripts. They are the ultimate middleman sucking both pharmaceutical companies and consumers dry.

The issue isn't fakes, it's the fact over medication is a real problem. Thank heavens that where I live drug advertising is illegal. After a visit to the US and encountering the brainwash machine of drug companies I realized just how important this law is.

If people took their medication properly, healthcare costs would lower dramatically - on the tune of $300 billion. Pill pack's medication packaging increases proper medication use thereby lowering health costs. This purchase gives Amazon an entry into online medical pharmacy and a solid method to lower health costs. Further,Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart show that people are likely to buy lots of non-prescription products when getting their prescription so this purchase will likely boost Amazon's general commerce business as well.

Link describing medication adherence potential health care savings. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/ConsumerHealth...

Link describing medication adherence and Pill Pack. https://www.pillpack.com/healthcare-providers

The cumulative loss to CVS's and Walgreens's market caps has been about $12b. If Amazon had wanted to, they likely could have made more from the destruction of value to those companies than they paid to buy PillPack.

I wonder what other industries out there can be arbitraged like this. I bet Amazon could shave well over $10b of market cap off of BKNG if they made the right strategic investment.

PillPack and other services like it can be life-saving. I'm only a second year medical student and I already can't count the number of conversations I've had with (especially elderly) patients about concerns regarding med adherence when burdened with a large number of prescriptions.

Pharmacies and benefit management companies have become very consolidated in recent years. And from what I've seen (which I'll have to be cryptic about since I don't want to accidentally reveal personal information about myself or anyone I know), it's not been to the benefit of consumers. Big evil companies that make money by screwing over sick people have been doing the 80s slash-and-burn consolidation thing where good companies are bought, existing customers are screwed over, and some small fraction of the company is absorbed into the greater machine. Buy a good company, deny people their medication, then make money off the difference until the customers leave for another company, then finally buy that one and repeat the cycle.

This means getting in there is going to be very profitable, and if amazon can get in there are use its existing scale they can get quite rich. There's now three benefit management companies that are in charge of altruistically deciding what medications you can afford. On the one hand, Amazon breaking up this pathological oligopoly would be good for consumers, but if it's really a market structure thing we run the risk of there still being on three companies, but with Amazon instead of CVS, ExpressScripts, or United Health.

Large parts of PillPack were being mismanaged into the ground, I trust Amazon can fix them but at the same time my first reaction to the news was to text my non-programmer-or-management friends there about when they’re quitting.

If Amazon’s warehouses or Whole Foods are any indication of how they’ll approach the unavoidable human work involved at a pharmacy, I have serious doubts about the quality of service. And pill pack is already in a pretty sorry state.

This is huge. If I were into pharma business I would be very worried for my business.

I used a mail order prescription service for a while (ExpressScripts). It was awful. They routinely lost, failed to ship, or double-shipped packages, and I got multiple bottles of pills that had expired due to being left in the heat. I, personally, will never trust mail order prescriptions again.

It seems that Amazon wants to become not only where you buy your stuff but also your Grocery and get Prescription drugs. I guess the play is that they are seeking out more places where to expand in a large way. Pharmacies are a big cash cow and entering in this space is not going to be trivial.

On the other hand imagine what you could do with the data . Lets say you have clinical depression. Maybe it would recommend you a medical food such as Deplin or even the l-methylfoliate.

As an early adopter of PillPack I can say that it is awesome. Not only are the packs very convenient (no more bottles, knowing when you forgot to take drugs) but the customer service is the best I've ever experienced.

I had tried to use the mail-order drugs provided by insurance companies and they were a disaster. I couldn't find out what was coming when. Drugs would seemingly-randomly show up in my mailbox.

I wonder if Amazon hopes to eventually get into manufacturing of pharmaceuticals. How long before we start to see AmazonBasics versions of Aspirin?

Hope this is not redundant, but I believe that this deal gives Amazon a license to sell drugs in all 50 states.

NURX (YC W16) is hiring by the way and it will be bigger than PillPack https://www.nurx.com/careers/ as it also prescribes

Is the physical volume of the average pill predominantly "active ingredient"? If not, why not just "print" a single pill per customer-dose comprised of the prescribed constituents?

   This was so needed. Can they hasten the paper work doctors and insurance companies require? 

  Amazon.com "Instant gratification at the speed of UPS." /g

Maybe they can bring reliability, accuracy, and better customer service - because my experience with PillPack was terrible. Dropped them after a little over a year.

Will this also expand Amazon's catalog of non-prescription supplements, such as vitamins, amino acids, co-enzymes, probiotics, etc.. ?

Just wanted to say it's pretty sad a company like PillPack even has to exist - it shows we're on WAY too many fucking pills.

There are some interesting security issues in the underlying systems that pharmacies like PillPack use. Here is a security advisory for PillPack from 2015: https://wwws.nightwatchcybersecurity.com/2015/04/30/advisory...

Basically the system that pharmacies used to transfer prescriptions isn't secure

No company should be as big as Amazon is getting. I hope American regulators look seriously at breaking this company up.

Is it considered insider trading to short a competitor before making an announcement you suspect will impact them?

ah the power of extracting money from health insurance

if people were paying out of pocket these kinds of markup could not survive

fun fact: thanks to lobbyists and congress, it is illegal under federal law for a pharmacist to voluntarily tell you it cheaper to pay cash than use your insurance co-pay, you have to know to ask

Instantly licensed to sell/ship pharmaceuticals in the entire USA @ 20 million per state, not bad...

PillPack sounds like the name of a black market drug company.... interesting name.

Paul Leroux called, he wants his ebiz back! ;)

Captain Bezos takes us one step closer...https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-kdRdzxdZQ