Amazon.com is looking to target the likes of Chemist Warehouse and Priceline in a move that could have ramifications for the Australian pharmacy industry.<\/p>\n
Analysts claims that Amazon almost certain to enter the business of selling prescription drugs by 2019, said two analysts at Leerink Partners, posing a direct threat to the biggest brick-and-mortar drugstore chains.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a matter of when, not if,\u201d Leerink Partners analyst David Larsen said in a report to clients late Thursday. \u201cWe expect an announcement within the next 1-2 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amazon has a long standing interest in prescription drugs, an industry with multiple middlemen, long supply chains and opaque pricing. In the 1990s, it invested in US Pharmacy startup Drugstore.com and Amazon Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos sat on the board. Walgreens eventually purchased the site and shuttered it last year to focus on its own branded website Walgreens.com.<\/p>\n
Leerink\u2019s calls with industry experts suggest that Amazon \u201cis in active discussions\u201d with mid-size pharmacy benefit managers and possibly larger player such as Prime Therapeutics, Larsen\u2019s colleague, Ana Gupte, wrote in a separate report Friday.<\/p>\n
Representatives for Amazon didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment. On Friday, CNBC reported that Amazon could make a decision about selling prescription drugs online this year the news network didn\u2019t name its sources.<\/p>\n
If the online retail giant does enter the Australian pharmacy market, it would pose \u201can immediate near-term threat\u201d to retail pharmacy chains such as Chemist Warehouse, Terry White, Priceline and Amcal Chemists in Australia claim analysts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"