Amazon may soon be deciding if it is going to next disrupt the pharmacy business.
Inside sources have hinted that the yes-or-no decision to start pushing prescription drugs online could come before Thanksgiving,
according to a CNBC report.
This comes on the heels of its mega-move into the grocery business with the acquisition of Whole Foods.
The suddenly larger retail footprint could make an easier fit for a brick-and-mortar pharmacy move, as well.
That said, the complex drug supply chain and regulatory hurdles could make it a tougher go against established competitors than the food game.
If the move gets a green light, look for the online retail giant to start adding pharma supply chain professionals to its roster, advises the business news channel.
So far, Amazon has had no comment on the speculation, although it has been fattening up its consumables group for months, led by VP Eric French. Mark Lyons came aboard as well, from Premera Blue Cross, with the goal of constructing “an internal pharmacy benefits manager for its own employees,” insiders told CNBC.
That manager could prove a template for a consumer-facing pharmacy play.
In August, a Goldman Sachs report made the suggestion that the company could push for better price transparency and lower costs to consumers. In addition,
according to CNBC, analysts suggested that Amazon could enter the space in stages, rather than trying to disrupt pharmacies immediately. First it could make a deal with a pharmacy benefits manager (PBM). Such a move would give it "access to patient data and the potential to cross-sell related products."
The goliath has already set up
“1492,” a secret “skunkworks lab” aiming at health care opportunities, from EMR to telemedicine, focusing both on hardware and software, according to July reports.
Hospitals and doctors have already been looking at ways to use Alexa, as well, for things such as record keeping and transcription.
"There are some massive voice applications that will be built for health enterprises," John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hospital, told CNBC in June.
In fact, Boston Children's Hospital has even launched an Alexa app called KidsMD, that lets users get information on medication, dosing and common symptoms via Alexa.
Ceders Sinai in Los Angeles is also looking at Alexa.
"We are fascinated with it," said its CIO Darren Dworkin, noting that, "we need a killer app before it gets mainstream, but I don't know what that will be yet."
The company has also sought strategic agreements in the health care space. For example, in 2016,
Amazon Web Services partnered with the American Heart Association.
The news that Amazon is ramping up to move into health care was hinted at when company CEO, Jeff Bezos, spoke with Walter Isaacson, president of the Aspen Institute, at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in October, 2016.
At the time Bezos told the crowd, “I think health care is going to be one of those industries that is elevated and made better by machine learning and artificial intelligence ... And I actually think Echo and Alexa do have a role to play in that."
“It would be going too far to say that we have worked out a vision,” he noted, but added that, “we’re working on having a vision in that arena because I do think it would be very helpful … The medical care system is so big, no one company can do this. It has to be that you provide tools, and then hospitals and doctors and nurses and so on use those tools to improve health care.”