Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 333 posts

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#121

Post by jonknee »

petra wrote: post #71
jonknee wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They have lots of different businesses and associated supply chains, they're not going to have random 3rd parties selling prescriptions on Amazon like they do for many verticals. There would be no reason to integrate prescriptions in with their warehouses, so I don't think one is going to change the other.

Interesting. Do they all ready have a supply chain close to the requirements needed in healthcare ? For what ?

They operate data centers for the CIA, I'm sure they can figure out how to get your pills from Pfizer to your front door. Regardless, they just bought a company that already figured this out. The hard part is the nationwide licensing, dealing with insurance and record keeping, not pick and pack.

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#122

Post by [deleted] »

Bartweiss wrote: post #69
petra wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True, maybe shipping was a constraint. can any random guy ship drugs ? isn't some special supply chain required ? Another guess is that changing habits(especially since buying drugs is an infrequent event, and that we're dealing with seniors) and creating trust we're other reasons.

PillPack is basically a supply chain company - it's not an easy field to get into. I don't know if "who can ship these" is a big hurdle, though. Possibly a bigger issue is "doctors and patients are used to calling prescriptions in to pharmacies". But the main issue with drug delivery is the need for reliability; you can't have somebody's heart medication ship out late or get lost in transit, basically ever . And if y…

[deleted]

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#123

Post by petra »

Bartweiss wrote: post #78
prostoalex wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The target market is dominated by seniors, who no longer have to drive to a local pharmacy and hang around the store while waiting for the subscription to be fulfilled. I am frankly surprised no dominant online player has emerged yet. Perhaps the shipping costs were a constraint?

Actual shipping costs aside, being a delivery channel is way harder for drugs than for most other things. Amazon is reliable, sure, but what do they have - 99.9% fulfillment, 99% on time, 99% with authentic products, 97% of listed products in stock? Those are guesses, but apply those numbers to delivering vital daily medicines and the problem becomes pretty obvious. Keeping in-stock rates high and "on time with authe…

I agree in general, reliability is very important. But the reliability is not 100%, even in traditional pharmacy chains, at least from my experience(not for heart medication, though). And maybe, being an online subscription service(i.e. central warehousing and knowing orders in advance - predictability ) makes it easier, cheaper to guarantee that reliability ? maybe even with some errors in the system ?

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#124

Post by xkjkls »

0x4f3759df wrote: post #118
xkjkls wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Knockoffs of what food? Like selling not organic produce as organic?

NPR interviewed the author of Real Food, Fake Food. Basically everything is fake, olive oil, fish, Parmesan cheese http://www.realfoodfakefood.com/real-food-fake-food-book-by-...

That's far from an Amazon problem. Olive oil fraud has been a thing since before Christ.

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#125

Post by dingaling »

harshaw wrote: post #81

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 m…

> They seemed to be solving a great problem for customers using multiple medicines.

Most high-street pharmacies in the UK have offered pill-packs for years; you route all your prescriptions to them and their pharmacists arrange the medication into little time-inscribed compartments on a blisterpack.

For them there is benefit in monopolising the medicines of each customer ( more $$ from the NHS ) and for the customer it becomes simple to take medicine at the correct times and intervals. For relatives it's also simple to check that medicines have been taken as required.

PillPack seems to do that, but 'on the Internet'. shrug

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#127

Post by aslkdjaslkdj1 »

bduerst wrote: post #101
noname120 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does this really apply to products sold by Amazon?

Yeah, I've bought counterfeit Amazon Basics batteries off of Amazon before :/

How? Amazon doesn't allow 3rd parties to sell/list AmazonBasics batteries.

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#128

Post by md224 »

harshaw wrote: post #81

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 m…

That’s weird... I live in NYC and get my Vyvanse prescription delivered by Capsule. Haven’t had to drop off a paper prescription in years. Different local laws? Or maybe it’s because she’s a minor? That sounds frustrating, sorry you have to deal with that.

P.S. While we’re on the topic, if anyone’s interested in a libertarian perspective, check out Jessica Flanigan’s 2012 JME paper “Three arguments against prescription requirements”: https://jme.bmj.com/content/38/10/579

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#129

Post by atourgates »

simonsarris wrote: post #17
charleyma wrote: post #2

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)

All the time. They tried to make a move into retail registers to compete with Square, and failed. They shuttered Amazon register in 2015: https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/10/30/amazon-shutting-do... They tried to take on Etsy with Amazon Handmade which bombed Etsy stock, but Handmade has gone pretty much nowhere, except some re-branding this year. People just forget Amazon's failed ventures, even fairly high profi…

From a consumer adoption standpoint, the only thing standing in Amazon Register's way was a lack of marketing.

As a merchant, it was amazing. They offered promotional rate of 1.75%, which is basically impossible to beat for any small business.

For context, Square and most "simple pay per swipe" merchant service providers charge 2.75%. If you go out and get a really good deal from a intrchange+ provider, you might be able to get your rate down close to 2%. But Amazon Register got you below that with significantly less hassle, no subscription fees and a $0 equipment cost.

My wife used it at her small business for a year, and during that year I loved getting proposals from other banks and merchant service providers. Many had an offer like, "Let us audit your merchant fees, and if we can't beat them, we'll give you a $200 gift card."

I always gave them the opportunity to try, but with the caveat that there was no way they could beat our current rates, and I wasn't going to take their money when they failed. Mostly, I just never heard back after they realized I wasn't BS'ing about the fees we were paying.

If Amazon Register had been more widely promoted, they could/should have been able to get every credit-card-accepting small business in the country signed up at least for the promotional period. I'd love to see some kind of post-mortem to explain why they didn't.

Re: Amazon buys PillPack, an online pharmacy, for just under $1B

#130

Post by petra »

nsp wrote: post #94
toomuchtodo wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t believe that for one moment. It’d end with a fine and a scapegoat getting fired. Is Elizabeth Holmes in jail?

She’s been charged with fraud, which carries a jail sentence. So most likely, yes.

Nothing medical, just investor fraud.
Post reply on HN