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

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

#171

Post by owenmarshall »

PeanutNore wrote: post #138
tombrossman wrote: post #18

This is interesting because Amazon isn't exactly known for supply chain integrity. Who here hasn't received fakes from Amazon? If you rely on a specific medication for your health, is Amazon a brand you trust to deliver it? How long until they start commingling pills and shipping random counterfeit/fake product to users? Hope it never happens but if they do with pharmaceuticals what they did with everything else they…

The integrity of the pharmaceutical supply chain is controlled by a specific federal law, Title II of the Drug Quality and Security Act of 2013, also known as the Drug Supply Chain Security Act. The potential liability they would be exposing themselves to if Amazon treated their drug supply chain the way they treat standard 'Fulfilled by Amazon' products would hopefully prevent something like that from ever happening…

The FD&C act imposes strict liability on violations, and criminal prosecutions for mislabeling and adulterating drugs have extended to company officers that were completely unaware of the actions their subordinates had taken.

Amazon isn't stupid: they know _exactly_ where they can play it fast and loose in order to maximize profit and where they must operate under strict regulation. This isn't the former.

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

#172

Post by jedberg »

atourgates wrote: post #134
ProAm wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No different than when Garmin's stock collapsed when Google announced free Maps/Navigation [1][2]. It's just the market reacting to supply and demand. [1] http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/10/28/google.maps.helps.gps... [2] http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-free-gps-service-crus...

And caused a sea change for the industry and Garmin's business model. Garmin's automotive segment revenue has dropped from $2.5-billion in 2008, to $700-million in 2017. [1] They've been able to largely make up for it with revenue from other sources, [2] (mostly outdoor/fitness) [3], but I'm sure that shift and innovation was driven by the event you mentioned. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/217901/net-sales-…

And most of that revenue surprises me. My car has a Garmin system built in (Honda). I never use it. I just connect my smartphone with CarPlay and use Waze (which will be even easier in September when it will show on the main touchscreen).

So in my case, I paid money to Honda who in turn paid it to Garmin for something I'll never use, just so they can say it "comes with Navigation".

I wonder how long that will last before no one cares if a car comes with navigation.

I've already seen high end cars being sold without navigation, and just marketed as "smartphone ready". I suspect in a few years either all the cars will be sold that way, or they will all be self driving and get their navigation elsewhere.

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

#173

Post by rtkwe »

cabaalis wrote: post #21
simonsarris wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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. Is severely damaging another online vendor really a failure for Amazon? It seems to me at that level, revenue from a venture is not always the only measure of success.

I'm struggling to find exactly where Amazon Handmade 'bombed' Etsy's stock in the first place. It was originally announced in 2015 and expanded later last year but both times Etsy has had a small single digit percentage sell off and recovered. Today they're back to above their IPO numbers even.

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

#174

Post by treis »

jhenkens wrote: post #109
treis wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that inventory from different sellers is commingled unless the seller pays extra. So Amazon's controllers are in the same bin as the ones from Real Good Fakes Inc. Even if you buy from Amazon the actual product you get might have been supplied by Real Good Fakes.

Is it not still shown as "Fullfilled by Amazon" but all grouped under the same product page? I presumed "Sold by Amazon.com" meant procured, shelved, and shipped directly via Amazon.com, none of this third party fulfillment crap.

It is. The issue is that for the "shelved" step there is only one shelf per piece of inventory. So once it is one the shelf there is no guarantee about the origin.

Amazon does allow sellers to pay extra to keep their inventory separate. I don't know if the stuff Amazon sells is kept that way, but there's no guarantee it is.

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

#176

Post by cflewis »

finnthehuman wrote: post #168

Large parts of PillPack were being mismanaged into the ground, I trust Amazon can fix them but at the same time my first reaction to the news was to text my non-programmer-or-management friends there about when they’re quitting. If Amazon’s warehouses or Whole Foods are any indication of how they’ll approach the unavoidable human work involved at a pharmacy, I have serious doubts about the quality of service. And pil…

What do you think were mismanaged? I've used PillPack for years and I've been very happy.

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

#177

Post by rtkwe »

prostoalex wrote: post #48
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)

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?

You can today get a lot of prescriptions mailed to your home just from the local pharmacy like CVS so that's not going to be such a huge advantage. Also pharmacists can have pretty important roles educating people about harmful interactions and answering questions which is something where an online prescription fulfillment service might have a hard time.

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

#178

Post by zavi »

finnthehuman wrote: post #168

Large parts of PillPack were being mismanaged into the ground, I trust Amazon can fix them but at the same time my first reaction to the news was to text my non-programmer-or-management friends there about when they’re quitting. If Amazon’s warehouses or Whole Foods are any indication of how they’ll approach the unavoidable human work involved at a pharmacy, I have serious doubts about the quality of service. And pil…

What unavoidable human work at pharmacy? Authenticate patients and ship them prescriptions. Even CVS is doing it now.

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

#179

Post by dsfyu404ed »

jedberg wrote: post #172
atourgates wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And caused a sea change for the industry and Garmin's business model. Garmin's automotive segment revenue has dropped from $2.5-billion in 2008, to $700-million in 2017. [1] They've been able to largely make up for it with revenue from other sources, [2] (mostly outdoor/fitness) [3], but I'm sure that shift and innovation was driven by the event you mentioned. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/217901/net-sales-…

And most of that revenue surprises me. My car has a Garmin system built in (Honda). I never use it. I just connect my smartphone with CarPlay and use Waze (which will be even easier in September when it will show on the main touchscreen). So in my case, I paid money to Honda who in turn paid it to Garmin for something I'll never use, just so they can say it "comes with Navigation". I wonder how long that will last be…

You won't see that until "smartphone ready" means a box truck can tell your phone it's 12ft tall and to please not send it down any roads with under-height structures less than that.

Automakers want to control the quality of the user experience. They can do that better by partnering with a company that specializes in that sort of thing.

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

#180

Post by ianamartin »

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)

Phones.
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