Amazon Pharmacy and Solv Team on Faster Drug Delivery

Amazon Pharmacy joined forces with Solv, an artificial intelligence platform for healthcare providers, according to a Tuesday (Sept. 1) press release.

The partnership centers around a new Solv integration with Amazon Pharmacy that shows patients real-time prescription delivery options, including same-day delivery, within the medical appointment booking process, the release said.

“Collaborating with Amazon Pharmacy was an obvious choice because of the speed and convenience they bring to getting prescriptions to patients’ doors,” Solv Founder and CEO Heather Fernandez said in the release. “Their technology lets us show patients exactly when that will happen, right at the moment they’re booking care. Our providers deliver same-day care to millions of patients per month, and now their prescriptions arrive just as fast.”

Amazon Pharmacy’s technology lets patients see when their prescriptions can arrive in real time. That includes same-day delivery options in more than 3,100 cities in the United States, a number set to expand to 4,500 cities by the end of the year. Next-day delivery is also available in some locations, according to the release.

Once a patient chooses Amazon Pharmacy, their pharmacy preference is sent to the provider’s electronic health record, requiring no other work from clinical staff, the release said.

“Amazon Pharmacy was built to make getting medications as simple and fast as possible, with same-day and next-day delivery options that meet patients where they are,” Tanvi Patel, vice president and general manager of Amazon Pharmacy, said in the release. “Our work with Solv puts that speed and transparency in front of patients at the moment they’re scheduling care, so they can see when their prescription will arrive before they even walk into the clinic. That kind of visibility lets patients focus on getting better, not figuring out how to get their medication.”

Meanwhile, Amazon is planning to expand its Prime Air drone delivery service. The company hopes to increase the program to nearly 500 U.S. cities and towns by the end of 2026.

It’s a move that “underscores how autonomous delivery could start inverting the age-old retail equation that the farther customers live from one another, the more expensive they are to serve,” PYMNTS reported Thursday (Aug. 27).

At the same time, rival Walmart is tackling the same problem from a different angle via a drone infrastructure partnership with Wing.