Investing.com - Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) announced on Thursday that it has entered an agreement to acquire PillPack, an online pharmacy that offers pre-sorted doses of medications and home delivery.
“PillPack’s visionary team has a combination of deep pharmacy experience and a focus on technology,” Jeff Wilke, Amazon CEO Worldwide Consumer, said in the press release.
“We’re excited to see what we can do together on behalf of customers over time,” he added.
Amazon noted that the transaction was subject to regulatory approvals but that it expected the deal to close in the second half of 2018. Financial terms were not revealed.
Shares in Amazon were unaffected by the announcement, gaining 0.2% to $1,664.00 in pre-market trade by 9:08AM ET (13:08GMT).
However, rival pharmacy stocks felt the pressure from the increased competition by the retail giant.
Walgreens (NASDAQ:WBA) stock tumbled 8.8% to $60.45, CVS Health (NYSE:CVS) stock sank 7.9% to $64.50 and Rite Aid (NYSE:RAD) stock slumped 5.1% to $1.88.