Amazon has been slow to launch its digital pharmacy business after struggling with the complexities of running a healthcare company, The Washington Post reported March 27.
The tech giant debuted Amazon Pharmacy in 2020, two years after acquiring digital pharmacy Pillpack in 2018 for $750 million. Its creators departed Amazon last year.
"In case you missed it, the era of amazon being able to retain startup founders (and real builders more generally) is behind us," Pillpack co-founder TJ Parker tweeted March 16 after the founder of streaming platform Twitch also left Amazon.
Amazon Pharmacy hasn't rolled out features that were popular at Pillpack, such as daily prescription packets, former employees told the newspaper. Amazon also can't ship medications through its preexisting logistics system and took a while to merge Pillpack's technology into its complicated back-end software network, the former staffers said.
Amazon is "excited about the momentum for Amazon Pharmacy and our other health services," a company spokesperson told the Post.