Amazon Pharmacy expands same-day delivery to NYC and LA

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Amazon Pharmacy (AMZN) is expanding its same-day delivery services to New York City and Los Angeles. Amazon says the service will cut the time it takes consumers to access medications to manage common conditions such as flu and diabetes. The company plans to expand the service to more than a dozen US cities by the end of the year.

Yahoo Finance Reporter Anjalee Khemlani joins the Live show to explain how Amazon's pharmacy service will work.

For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Yahoo Finance Live.

Editor's note: This article was written by Nicholas Jacobino

Video Transcript

- Amazon Pharmacy is expanding its same day delivery services to New York City and the Greater Los Angeles area. Customers can get access to medication. to manage flu, high blood pressure, diabetes, and other common conditions within hours according to Amazon. Joining us at the desk with more, we've got Yahoo Finance's Anjalee Khemlani. Hey, Anj.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Hey, Brad. That's right. Amazon launching this new service, so in addition to the regular delivery service that it has for Pharmacy. Now, this is reducing the amount of time that it will take for members and for patients to get access. And that's in the New York and Greater LA areas.

Now, this is an addition to where they soft launched in Austin, Indianapolis, Miami, Phoenix, Seattle, and College Station, Texas, the last one of note getting their deliveries by drone. So that's a little bit interesting. They're also pushing the idea of renewable energy and being eco-friendly. So a lot of these deliveries are going to happen by e-bikes, by Rivians.

And it's also important to note that this is all coming out of nearby brick and mortar locations. So they have these automated, small pharmacy locations that they're operating out of. And that's where these prescriptions are coming from, and that's why the reduced time for receiving this goes across the board for their 12,000 medications that are available.

And it's really how Amazon is sort of inching in on the broader pharmacy space. Independent pharmacies are really the only option right now for same-day delivery or for near-term delivery other than mail order is the other option for patients. So this is really changing the game a little bit, if you will, and could be a game changer if they can expand to other really high need areas. So that's what we have to watch.

- It could be a massive game changer here. All right, Anj, thanks so much.

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