By buying an online pharmacy allowed to deliver in all US states for a billion dollars, Amazon entered a new market and caused incumbents' stocks to plummet. The stock valuations of the traditional players lost 12.8 billion dollars just from the announcement.
Will Amazon help Americans afford their medications? How does it factor in with their announcing a combined healthcare provider with JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway, and will it scale to the rest of us from there?
(Score: 4, Informative) by krishnoid on Monday July 02 2018, @01:09AM (2 children)
India (and probably other countries) looks like it handles counterfeiting and distribution by blister-packing the pills. If you go to pretty much any pharmacy there, they cut the packs with scissors to match the count of pills on the purchase, so the seals on the blisters are never broken until you open them yourself. The expiry dates, manufacturer, etc. are printed across the foil seals on the back to make it a little harder to counterfeit, especially since you'd have to insert yourself into the supply chain and distribution network to try to make money on medicine that isn't ridiculously expensive in the first place.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @01:54AM (1 child)
And the counterfeiters do not know how to make plastic...
That sort of thing raises the bar to entry for them. It does not make it impossible. Probably never will be.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 02 2018, @03:30AM
I used to get my meds from Indian manufacturers. My bloodwork showed they were legit. Pennies on the dollar compared to what "insurance" claims they cost. Hell, pennies on the dollar compared to the "great deal" insurance claims I'm getting. The price of drugs is pure bullshit.