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is launching a new benefit for Prime members that offers unlimited access to commonly prescribed generic medications for $5 a month, in the e-commerce giant’s latest move into healthcare.
The subscription service, called RxPass, became available on Tuesday in most U.S. states through Amazon’s online pharmacy service.
Customers of Amazon Prime, the company’s broad perk service that includes free shipping on many items and video streaming, can enroll in RxPass to receive medications that treat more than 80 common conditions, including high blood pressure and anxiety, for a $5-a-month flat fee, Amazon said. The cost includes delivery and is the same for customers with one or multiple prescriptions.
John Love,
vice president of Amazon Pharmacy, said the service will save the average Prime member around $100 on prescription costs a year, based on estimates of the top conditions Americans experience and the most common medications dispensed for them.
“We think even if we can just make things a little bit better for a whole lot of people, that’s going to have a resounding impact on health,” Mr. Love said.
Amazon started selling prescription medicines in November 2020, two years after its acquisition of online pharmacy PillPack Inc., as the Covid-19 pandemic pushed more people to order their medications online rather than venture out to a bricks-and-mortar pharmacy.
RxPass, the subscription service for Prime members, covers more than 50 generic medications and is available to Prime members. Prime memberships cost $139 a year.
Some Prime members may not be able to access the service. Prime members with Medicare or Medicaid aren’t able to use RxPass, and it isn’t currently available in several states, including California and Texas.
Amazon has been working to expand its healthcare offerings in the past year. The company said in July that it would acquire
1Life Healthcare Inc.,
an operator of primary-care clinics, in a $3.9 billion deal that included debt. It was then among several bidders for the home-health-services provider
Signify Health Inc.,
though it ultimately lost out to
CVS Health Corp.
In November, the company launched Amazon Clinic, a message-based telehealth service offering virtual care for common conditions such as allergies and heartburn.
The e-commerce giant has also halted some of its healthcare efforts. Last year, Amazon said it was shutting down Amazon Care, its telehealth service for in-house employees and businesses, after it struggled to expand outside of its own employee network.
Two years ago, leaders at Amazon,
Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
and
& Co. closed their joint healthcare venture called Haven Health. The group aimed to “transform health care” and reduce costs for workers at the three companies.
Mr. Love said Amazon is open to learning and adapting. “We’ve got a willingness to fail and to learn that maybe we don’t get the right product market fit all the time,” he said.
Generic drugs are typically less expensive than brand-name medications.
Meredith Rosenthal,
a health economics and policy professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said the new subscription service isn’t necessarily solving the drug affordability problem with this access to generic medications. But it could save some customers money depending on their circumstances.
“Amazon is enticing people to start doing business with Amazon for their prescription drugs and banking on it having either benefits to the rest of Amazon Prime or creating a foundation where they can then credibly expand into the larger retail pharmacy market,” Dr. Rosenthal said.
Amazon isn’t the only company exploring ways to bring down the cost of prescription drugs. The Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Co. PBC sells hundreds of prescribed generic drugs through its online pharmacy. The company says it charges less than its rivals and sells the medications directly to patients instead of charging their insurance providers.
Write to Dean Seal at dean.seal@wsj.com and Jennifer Calfas at jennifer.calfas@wsj.com
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