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SEATTLE — Amazon Pharmacy has rolled out same-day delivery of prescription medication in New York City and the greater L.A. area, with plans to expand the service to more than a dozen U.S. cities by the end of the year.
Customers in Austin, Indianapolis, Miami, Phoenix, and Seattle can already access same-day delivery, while customers in College Station, Texas, can get their medications delivered in under an hour via drone.
“By bringing Amazon Pharmacy’s deliveries into our existing world-class logistics network, Amazon is building the fastest and most convenient service for the home delivery of prescription medications,” said Doug Herrington, CEO of Worldwide Amazon Stores. “These faster delivery speeds will be a game changer when you or your family need your medications quickly.”
Amazon Pharmacy is using new small-format facilities, stocked with the most common prescription medications for acute conditions, to get medications closer to where customers live.
For example, Amazon Pharmacy’s new small-format facility in Brooklyn carries a subset of the more than 12,000 medications available from Amazon.com, with a focus on supporting urgent-care needs. The pharmacist and fulfillment team at the site can process a prescription within a matter of minutes rather than hours or days.
In traffic-jammed Manhattan, for example, delivery workers riding e-bikes may drop off medications at a customer’s door. In College Station, home to Texas A&M University, drones can help speed deliveries. In greater Los Angeles and suburban areas, all-electric vans or other commercial vehicles might be deployed.
Tapping a world-class logistics network
Amazon cites research suggesting that patients are more likely to take their medicine when it’s delivered to their door. Dr. Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist who serves as chief medical officer for Amazon Pharmacy, believes eliminating extended wait times for medicines should be a top priority in health care because people often need treatment almost as soon as they are diagnosed.
“The current pharmacy experience is broken, with patients facing long pharmacy lines and unexpected prices at the counter,” he said. “Amazon Pharmacy is tapping its world-class logistics network, along with a variety of cutting-edge technologies, to change that.”
The advanced technology powering Amazon Pharmacy’s service used generative artificial intelligence and machine to help pharmacists fill prescriptions more quickly and accurately. For example, when handwritten or online prescriptions come in, Amazon’s AI models undertake fact-checking tasks that help ensure pharmacists receive clear and accurate information.
AI can streamline prep work that historically would take hours down to mere minutes or even seconds, and reduce administrative errors, noted Kelvin Downes, director of fulfillment for Amazon Pharmacy.
“AI doesn’t replace the role of the pharmacist; it allows them to operate at the top of their license,” Downes said. “Rather than doing duplicative work, pharmacists can use the skills they went to school for to deliver better patient experiences.”
According to Downes, no prescription leaves a fulfillment center without a pharmacist having verified that it includes the right medicine, strength, dosage, quantity, and address label.
To support prescription medication drone delivery, Amazon Pharmacy and Prime Air co-created a new fulfillment process to ensure hyper-fast delivery. The pharmacy and fulfillment center are connected, allowing the pharmacy team to clinically evaluate a new prescription, dispense the medication, and hand over a single package for a drone to swiftly deliver.
“We built out a new fulfillment system by integrating a fully licensed pharmacy into existing logistics operations and smaller sites,” Downes said. “Prescription medication processing time is shrinking with AI on the back end and automation and new micromobility technologies on the front end.”
