CVS Health
Reports that Amazon is thinking about taking on the prescription drug industry have sent shares of CVS and Walgreens off a cliff. Both stocks are down around 4% on Friday after the news.
Amazon is in the final stages of developing its plan to take on the prescription drug market, CNBC’s Christina Farr reports. The e-commerce company is expected to make a decision about whether or not to enter the business by Thanksgiving.
Shares of CVS are down 3.96% to $77.68 and shares of Walgreens are down 4.87% to $73.16.
Amazon has been researching the industry for years and is aware of the risks associated with entering the market, according to CNBC. The company would look to improve price transparency and the cost of prescription drugs if it entered the market.
The move in the stock prices of CVS and Walgreens is only the latest example of companies being “Amazoned.” Amazon wiped billions of dollars of value from grocery chains in the wake of its Whole Foods acquisition. The “Retail Apocalypse” in America is often attributed to the rise of e-commerce spurred on by Amazon’s dominance of the area.
Amazon’s move into the grocery retail business is significantly less regulated than the prescription drug business, though. Amazon currently sells some medical and first-aid products on its site and even has an internal team focused on health research.
Amazon’s stock didn’t move noticeably on the news, and the company is up 30.97% this year.
To read more about Amazon’s ability to wipe billions of dollars of value from its competitors, click here…
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