Amazon moves into the prescription drug business

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A PillPack dispenser PillPack

Amazon moves into the prescription drug business

Amazon announced a deal Thursday to acquire PillPack, an online pharmacy that caters to people who take multiple prescription medications each day. It delivers prescription drugs in pre-sorted dose packaging and simplifies refills and renewals. Amazon will reportedly pay about $1 billion for the company. If regulators sign off on the deal, Amazon will have a path to disrupt the pharmaceutical industry the same way it’s shaken up just about everything else in retail. News of the deal rattled Wall Street on Thursday. Stocks of major drugstore chains like Walgreens and CVS dropped sharply.

Kristen Flavin

Kristen is an assistant producer for WORLD Radio. She is a World Journalism Institute graduate and has worked behind the scenes for WORLD Radio since it began in 2011.

@kristenflavin

Lynde Langdon

Lynde is WORLD’s executive editor for news. She is a graduate of World Journalism Institute, the Missouri School of Journalism, and the University of Missouri–St. Louis. Lynde resides with her family in Wichita, Kan.

@lmlangdon