Amazon Pharmacy Prices Disappoint

You may have heard that prescription drugs are yet another thing you can get when you go to Amazon.com. But, unlike in many other industries where Amazon can crush the competition on prices, its online pharmacy launch does not accomplish that. Amazon Pharmacy’s brand name medications, even those with generic competition, are similarly priced to CVS, Walmart, and the like. Overall, brand name drugs do not appear to be any cheaper using Amazon Pharmacy than what you can get using a discount card found on GoodRx or PharmacyChecker.com. How can they when the pharmaceutical industry has monopolistic pricing power over patented drugs?

Amazon is subject to the same average wholesale acquisition costs as Walgreens. Not only do drug manufacturers have patents: they have special international trade protections where companies cannot import these same drugs from foreign wholesalers who charge much lower prices in Canada, not to mention the even lower prices in the UK and European Union countries — unless the drug manufacturers do the importing or authorize it.

My opinion? Amazon Should Team Up with Bernie Sanders!

For about 20 years now, Senator Sanders, first in the House, and then in the Senate, has called for safe drug importation, understanding that ending the prohibitions on drug importation that do not actually protect safety (just Pharma profits) will infuse competition to lower prices here. Jeff Bezos is the ultimate back breaker of traditional, entrenched and protected industry interests. He should relish the opportunity to do this. Amazon has the money and lobbying power to make it work.

Our country is painfully divided right now. A Bezos-Bernie effort on drug prices could bring us together and finally break Big Pharma’s hold on our captive pharmaceutical marketplace. As it stands now, Amazon Pharmacy has not done so.

Review of Amazon Pharmacy

The drug prices on Amazon Pharmacy, like other U.S. pharmacies are far higher than international online pharmacy options. A 30 day supply of popular blood pressure medicine Eliquis (apixaban) costs $480 with an Amazon Prime membership. That’s still wildly expensive. Consumers would be better off buying from an international online pharmacy: it’s 93% cheaper.

Check out Dr. Shivam Patel’s review of Amazon Pharmacy vs. PharmacyChecker: