A pharmacist assists a customer at a CVS Health Corp. store in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Friday, Oct. 27, 2017. The prospect of Amazon.com Inc. entering the healthcare business is beginning to cause far-reaching reverberations for a range of companies, roiling the shares of drugstore chains, drug distributors and pharmacy-benefit managers, and potentially precipitating one of the biggest corporate merger deals this year. Photographer: Christopher Lee/Bloomberg
The market is buzzing with speculation that Amazon.com Inc will enter the pharmacy business. Some drugmakers are just fine with changes the tech retail giant might bring to the complex market.
Drug companies say getting medicine into patients’ hands is too complicated and costly. Some have pointed to the multiple layers of middlemen – including insurers, pharmacy benefit managers, distributors and pharmacies – as one reason for distorted prices and high costs in the US.
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