Amazon has announced it is buying US automated pharmacy company PillPack in a deal which is reportedly worth around £760 million ($1 billion).
The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals, though both parties expect the deal to go through towards the latter half of 2018.
The announcement confirms suspicions that Amazon is looking to break into the healthcare market.
Jeff Wilke, Amazon CEO worldwide consumer, said: “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.”
Founded in 2013, PillPack is aimed at people who take multiple daily prescriptions as it provides pre-sorted dose packaging as well as home delivery through its PharmacyOS system.
The company, which is used in every US state apart from Hawaii, liaises directly with a patient’s doctor to process repeat prescriptions.
It also allows customers to chat with a pharmacist or update their settings through the PillPack app.
And through an online dashboard, patients can check bills, track shipments and review their medication list.
According to Tech Crunch, sources have claimed the deal is worth around £760 million ($1 billion) and that PillPack had previously been in talks with supermarket firm Walmart.
TJ Parker, co-founder and CEO of PillPack, said: “PillPack makes it simple for any customer to take the right medication at the right time, and feel healthier.
“Together with Amazon, we are eager to continue working with partners across the healthcare industry to help people throughout the US who can benefit from a better pharmacy experience.”
The purchase of PillPack is not Amazon’s first dip into the healthcare market. In February 2018, it was reported the firm was teaming up with Berkshire Hathaway and US banking giant JP Morgan Chase to launch a healthcare business for their own employees.
1 July 2018 @ 22:15
Ok, cool. I’m excited to see what Amazon can do to a 200yr old supply -demand model.
Secondly however, all the pharmacists in GB need to stop writing online everywhere that Amazon is coming to the UK. No they aren’t and they won’t for some time! Why?
Well, when Amazon enters the market it TAKES THE MARKET. It has a no-half-measures; no-survivors attitude. And the UK is a capped market, a controlled Market. The Global Sum from which all community pharmacy services are funded (OK so it’s a little more complicated than that – but the principle remains) is set by HM Government. If Amazon was to take over dispensing it would TAKE IT OVER! However, all that would happen is DoH would see Amazon dispenses for say 6.5bn and the global sum is 8bn so theyll just decrease the Global Sum. The US doesn’t work like this.
And before anyone says they’ll buy P2U. Amazon don’t buy loss making, finance intensive businesses unless they are innovative. P2U is a call centre based business consuming millions in marketing a yr with a tricky track record re ICO. But more than that, i believe that IF Amazon was to enter the UK they wouldn’t touch the supply function as there’s no money, they would look at how to integrate the click-collect model to their services ie they would integrate with the tech that we use to order. And I don’t mean PillManager, Echo, RxLive, MedsExpress etc I mean Patient Access and those sort of things. I’d be more concerned about them striking up a relationship with the forthcoming NHS App…
I’ve only just thought of that – but actually yeh – Amazon if you want to enter the UK market, don’t burden yourself with supply/buying p2u, go and pair with the NHS app, they’re desperate to make that a success so they’ll accept your input any day!