Amazon.com Inc. (Seattle) has reached a deal to acquire the online pharmacy PillPack (Boston) in a deal reported to cost around $1 billion. The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2018.
According to Bloomberg, the move will most immediately disrupt major pharmacy chains like Walgreens (Deerfield, Ill.) and CVS (Woonsocket, R.I.), both of which have already seen shares sink since the news was announced yesterday.
Amazon’s entry into the U.S. healthcare system has been rumored for some time, as spending in 2016 on retail prescription drugs totaled more than $328 billion.