Amazon enters now finally into the medicine trade. The online mail order company has already announced its start in the USA.
Share prices of the competitors in a downward spiral!
Following Amazon’s announcement that the company is now also entering the drug trade, investors have already reacted to soon-to-be competitors and thus caused the share prices to collapse. This is not the first time that competitors’ share prices have been affected. In 2018, the online mail-order company had caused the prices of US drugstore chains to fluctuate considerably by purchasing the online pharmacy Pillpack. The affected drugstores had also sold drugs.
Amazon Pharmacy, the new online pharmacy
With yesterday’s announcement, the shares of CVS Health, Rite Aid and also Walgreens on Wall Street fell by eight to twelve points before trading. The shares of Cardinal Health and McKesson were also affected by the slump. In contrast to the competition, Amazon had an increase of 2.5 percentage points. Amazon’s share price was thus still up at around USD 3,150. Amazon’s new online pharmacy should then also make it possible to compare the prices of individual drugs. A co-payment option for insured persons is also included in the service. Prime members have a special advantage here. On the one hand, they receive delivery free of charge within two days and on the other hand, they can receive a discount of up to 80 percent if they pay for the medication privately. The discount only applies if the customer does not take out insurance. However, the online mail-order company does not want to offer drugs such as opioids on its platform to prevent possible misuse. So far, the online pharmacy is not yet available in the entire USA, such as Minnesota and Hawaii. Also the website is not yet completely finished, but is already online.
Amazon writes privacy in capital letters
Amazon wants to ensure a high level of transparency in the prices of the respective drugs and data protection is also high on the agenda. This means that the particularly sensitive data of customers should be secure and not be used for possible advertising measures. As a further plus, Amazon Pharmacy wants to offer a 24-hour service by pharmacists. Here, customers can ask questions at any time via a telephone number. It remains to be seen whether the market entry of Amazon will change the acceptance of online pharmacies. So far, this has been rather low. However, Amazon Prime customers in particular could accept the service very quickly, especially if they can expect some discounts. It is unfortunately not yet known when the service will be offered in Germany.
