Amazon Pharmacy debuts same-day delivery in NYC, L.A.
Customers in New York City and greater Los Angeles who need medication to manage flu, high blood pressure, diabetes and other common conditions can now get their medications delivered to their door within hours, Amazon announced in a post.
Amazon Pharmacy has launched 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.”
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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, the company said.
Each city will experience same-day delivery of prescription medications a little differently. In traffic-jammed Manhattan, for example, delivery workers riding eco-friendly e-bikes may drop off medications at a customer’s door. In College Station, home to Texas A&M University, drones may be used to fly medications to a customer in less than an hour. In greater Los Angeles and other suburban areas, Rivian all-electric vans or other commercial vehicles may make their way to customers’ doors. “At Amazon Pharmacy, we’re selecting the best delivery method for each location to get prescriptions to customers when they need them most,” the company said.
Amazon noted that delivery of prescription medication has existed since the 1940s, yet it accounts for just 10% of U.S. pharmacy orders.
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Amazon shared that 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,” said Gupta. “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 same-day delivery service is using generative artificial intelligence and machine learning to help pharmacists fill prescriptions more quickly and accurately, the company said. For example, when handwritten or online prescriptions come in, Amazon’s AI models undertake a series of fact-checking tasks that help ensure pharmacists receive clear and accurate information, the company noted.
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 hyperfast 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. One particular order, for instance, was processed and delivered in just 53 minutes via drone.