Live data from Hacker News

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

techcrunch.com

281–290 of 333 posts

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

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I get a prescription for a 3 month supply of Vyvanse (amphetamine), 90 pills. The real pain is in the pharmacies who love to power trip. The CVS near me got a new pharmacist who decided she didn't want to fill my prescription because I wanted to pay in cash (no insurance at the time). Didn't even offer to call up my doctor's office to confirm. Just a hard no and goodbye. Made me feel awful, like I was trying to cheat…

To get what you want, you must first understand the perspective of others. Understand their motivations and incentives and then take the path of least resistance. Apparently pharmacists can be held personally liable for narcotic law violations. When you pay in cash instead of with an insurance claim you are not in the system. Not all cash payers are trouble, but a noticeably higher proportion of cash payers are troub…

I've had similar experiences to OP, and I can also attest to the fact that it is absolutely obnoxious to be treated like a criminal in the normal course of filling your daily prescription.

Sometimes you have to travel for work, and because methylphenidate is such a threat to society (it isn't) you can't fill prescriptions out of state. So you talk to your doctor to get a special prescription with written instructions to allow it to be filled 4 days early (gasp!) so you can fill it before your trip. The pharmacist then rejects filling it for you, for reasons they refuse to explain.

I see a doctor in my home state, about an hour's drive from where I currently live. I see this doctor once every three months. I've seen him for 10 years. I would like to continue to see him. Recently I was put on a light sleep aid for anxiety reasons, I went to fill this prescription (which I have to do in the state that I see the doctor in). I was told my insurance only allows me to get a 2 week supply, and I'll have to come back in 2 weeks later to fill the rest of the 30 day prescription the doctor wrote. When I asked how much it would cost to just pay out of pocket, it was negligable, 20 dollars or so. When I asked to just pay for it myself to avoid making a long trip again 2 weeks later, the pharmacist decided to deny giving me anything.

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

#282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you think the medications get to your local pharmacy?

Via climate controlled aircraft, distribution facilities, and relatively well ventilated delivery trucks? No step in the retail pharmacy supply chain involves routinely putting it in a small black box sitting out in the sun until you get home from work in the evening.

I’d be utterly shocked if you’re correct. Controlled substances most likely do get some kind of kind of courier delivery, but there’s no reason to do it for anything else. If it needs to stay cold you slap in an insulated box with ice packs. I’ve gotten deliveries before from Blue Apron and Omaha Steaks. Believe me, they have no problem keeping things cold.

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

#283
post #229

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…

This is a very ill-informed opinion. The supply chain is very strictly regulated for pharmaceutical medications. Do you really think that Amazon can get their stock medications from just anyone? Do you think there is no oversight on this kind of thing? The DEA doesn't fuck around. They take all of this stuff very seriously. Commingling medications? Really? In a pharmacy, medications are NEVER allowed to be commingled…

I can attest to this. I recently got 2 bottles of seemingly identical muscle relaxers, but they were just two diff manufacturers. And they made a point of calling it out so i knew why i got two half filled bottles..

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

#284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Insurance companies like to pretend all generics are the same, but they are not. Getting them to pay for the brand because all of a sudden your pharmacy switches generic brands is almost impossible.

Can you explain what is different about certain generics?

Generics, all of them I'd intuit, seem to be manufactured with the same active ingredients but different 'filler' ingredients that are non-active.

Abruptly changing that filler could very well send an epileptic into a static seizure.

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

#285
post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is pretty remarkable how inefficient getting pills from a pharmacist is. The actual dispensing could be easily handled by a glorified vending machine so all the pharmacist would have to do is punch some buttons on a computer instead of having to physically handle anything except dumping packages from the manufacturer in it upon delivery.

Actually, some pharmacies do have counting robots now which count out their most commonly filled prescriptions, like norco. They’re not perfect though.

Very common now. All the pharmacies in my primary health system's offices use these: https://innovat.com/pharmassist-robotx/

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

#286
post #217

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…

> lots of teams working on lots of products, and if some of them don't pan out, that's OK Basically the modern tech titan mantra. The only company out of the big 5 that isn't doing this is Apple.

I'm sure Apple does too, the only difference is they test internally and squash them before the public knows about them rather than letting them fail in the marketplace.

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

#287
If people took their medication properly, healthcare costs would lower dramatically - on the tune of $300 billion. Pill pack's medication packaging increases proper medication use thereby lowering health costs. This purchase gives Amazon an entry into online medical pharmacy and a solid method to lower health costs. Further,Walgreens, CVS, and Walmart show that people are likely to buy lots of non-prescription products when getting their prescription so this purchase will likely boost Amazon's general commerce business as well.

Link describing medication adherence potential health care savings. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Conditions/More/ConsumerHealth...

Link describing medication adherence and Pill Pack. https://www.pillpack.com/healthcare-providers

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

#288

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you actually received fake food from amazon?

Food items can end up 2x+ times the price over a grocery store because there are hidden shipping costs. And many times the higher prices cause less people to purchase, so the item has a short experiation date. And Im concerned about knockoffs as well.

Fake bananas from Honduras?

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

#289
post #271
post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a very ill-informed opinion. The supply chain is very strictly regulated for pharmaceutical medications. Do you really think that Amazon can get their stock medications from just anyone? Do you think there is no oversight on this kind of thing? The DEA doesn't fuck around. They take all of this stuff very seriously. Commingling medications? Really? In a pharmacy, medications are NEVER allowed to be commingled…

Amazon has had drug problems in the past... http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_exa... https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Health/amazon-prescription-drug-p... Everyone knows pharmacies are highly regulated, however Amazon has somehow managed to flaunt regulations so far without much consequences.

I’ll grant you it is worrying to see that happening, interesting articles I had no idea about. Though I would think now that Amazon is officially getting into the pharmaceutical game, this will bring them under much more scrutiny for this kind of thing in the future.

I could be wrong, as the first article states, Amazon skated by without so much as a warning while bodybuilding.com had to pay fines for selling the same steroids, but I would expect the FDA is able to throw their weight around more with Amazon now by shutting down their official pharmaceutical operation if they continue to make perscription medications available like this on their retail site.

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

#290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What always seemed odd to me in such a wasteful society as the US: counting pills. Really? In many countries you get blisters. No counting. I suspect in some European countries it would actually be illegal to do this. The disadvantage is that there are some leftover pills most of the time. E.g. you need 30 pills and there are only units of 20 available.

> The disadvantage is that there are some leftover pills most of the time. E.g. you need 30 pills and there are only units of 20 available. This is the exact reason why they count pills. You have a prescription for X pills, you get X pills. It's been a while since I've had a prescription filled, but I think that in New Zealand it's the same. Most prescription drugs like opiate painkillers or antibiotics are counted a…

Here in India, they'll either cut the blisters to your prescription or give already cut blisters from previous orders.
Post reply on HN