Amazon Pharmacy is revamping the home medication delivery landscape. The company announced Tuesday that it has expanded its same-day medication delivery service to New York City and Los Angeles, with plans to reach over a dozen more U.S. cities by year’s end. This expansion leverages environmentally friendly vehicles like e-bikes and electric vans, with a focus on selecting “the best delivery method at each location to get prescriptions to customers,” according to Amazon executives.
Residents of New York City and Los Angeles who require medications for common conditions like flu, high blood pressure, and diabetes can now have their prescriptions delivered to their doorstep within a few hours. Notably, Amazon Pharmacy already offers same-day delivery services in Austin, Indianapolis, Miami, Phoenix, and Seattle. In October 2023, they took things a step further by launching drone delivery for prescriptions in College Station, Texas.
“By bringing Amazon Pharmacy’s deliveries into our existing world-class logistics network, Amazon is building the fastest and most convenient service for the home delivery of prescription medications,” declared Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores.
This move by Amazon Pharmacy significantly reduces delivery times to mere hours in some cases, far surpassing the industry standard of up to two weeks. The online retail giant unveiled Amazon Pharmacy in November 2020, following its acquisition of PillPack in 2018. By leveraging its logistics and supply chain expertise, Amazon aims to streamline the process of obtaining prescription medications for patients, ultimately accelerating “triage to treatment,” as executives have highlighted in previous interviews.
Dr. Vin Gupta, Amazon Pharmacy’s chief medical officer and a pulmonologist, emphasizes the critical role speed to treatment plays in improving patient care by eliminating extended wait times for medications.
“The current pharmacy experience is broken, with patients facing long pharmacy lines and unexpected prices at the counter,” said Gupta. “Amazon Pharmacy is tapping its world-class logistics network, along with a variety of cutting-edge technologies, to change that.”
A key focus of Amazon Pharmacy has been price transparency and affordability for both brand-name and generic drugs. The company introduced RxPass, a prescription drug subscription service for Prime members, along with a new feature that simplifies the use of manufacturer discounts on branded medications by integrating coupons directly into the checkout process.
However, Amazon Pharmacy hasn’t limited itself to price transparency. Over the past three and a half years, the company has been actively building partnerships with major health plans and pharmaceutical companies, solidifying its presence in the pharmacy market.
A significant development occurred in August 2023 when Blue Shield of California announced a major shift, severing most ties with CVS Health’s Caremark, its current pharmacy benefit manager. Instead, they partnered with Amazon Pharmacy, Abarca, Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, and Prime Therapeutics to manage prescription drug costs for their nearly 5 million members. This partnership allows Amazon Pharmacy to provide home delivery of prescription medications for Blue Shield members.
Earlier this month, Eli Lilly selected Amazon’s pharmacy unit to offer home delivery for medications used to treat diabetes, migraines, and obesity, including the GLP-1 weight loss drug Zepbound. This move coincided with the launch of LillyDirect, the drugmaker’s direct-to-consumer service offering telehealth and pharmacy services, along with the option to obtain certain medications directly from the company through online pharmacies.
Dr. Gupta asserts that Amazon Pharmacy is fundamentally changing the pharmacy experience, going beyond just faster delivery speeds.
Amazon Pharmacy: AI Boosts Speed & Accuracy
While artificial intelligence (AI) is a popular term thrown around in healthcare, Amazon Pharmacy is actively implementing generative AI, machine learning, and other innovative technologies to expedite and ensure accurate prescription fulfillment.
This translates to real benefits for patients. AI streamlines tasks that previously took hours, reducing them to minutes or even seconds, according to Kelvin Downes, director of fulfillment for Amazon Pharmacy. This efficiency also minimizes administrative errors.
Dr. Vin Gupta, Amazon Pharmacy’s chief medical officer, highlighted that AI has increased processing speeds by over 90%. This significant improvement contributes to faster delivery times for patients.
But AI’s role goes beyond speed. Amazon’s AI models act as a safety net for pharmacists by performing fact-checking tasks on incoming prescriptions, whether handwritten or submitted online. This ensures pharmacists receive clear and accurate information before dispensing medication. Downes emphasizes that no prescription leaves a fulfillment center without a pharmacist’s final verification of the medicine, strength, dosage, quantity, and address label.
In addition to AI, Amazon Pharmacy leverages new, strategically located small-format facilities. These facilities stock the most commonly prescribed medications for acute conditions, bringing essential medications closer to customers. For instance, the Brooklyn facility carries a targeted selection from the over 12,000 medications available on Amazon.com, focusing on supporting urgent care needs. This approach allows the on-site pharmacist and fulfillment team to process prescriptions within minutes, significantly faster than traditional pharmacies.
Furthermore, AI empowers Amazon Pharmacy to forecast medication demand in specific regions. This data is then used to optimize inventory management within distribution centers, ensuring they have the necessary stock to fulfill prescriptions efficiently.
