Walmart almost bought online pharmacy PillPack in 2018, but when the retail giant paused talks Amazon swooped in to acquire the startup, Fortune reported June 13.
A few months before Amazon paid a reported $750 million for PillPack, which delivers individually packaged medications, Walmart had been so close to acquiring the pharmacy that it planned to go on a morning news show to announce the deal, according to the story. But it put negotiations on hold, possibly because of a Department of Justice investigation over its alleged involvement in the opioid crisis.
"I think you made the wrong decision," Walmart CEO Doug McMillon reportedly told PillPack co-founder TJ Parker after the Amazon news came out, per Fortune. "We were the right buyer."
According to the story, Walmart had been looking to upgrade its pharmacy IT systems and make a splash in healthcare, which it has been trying to disrupt since its late founder Sam Walton said in 1991: "We've got to get the hospitals and doctors in line. We've got to get those charges under control. These people are skinning us alive." Amazon, meanwhile, was aiming to break into the pharmacy business after its failed investment in Drugstore.com in 1999.