Amazon is moving forward on its plans to expand its same-day delivery of prescription drugs with the opening a center in Dallas: Called Amazon Pharmacy, it will be located inside Amazon's Richardson distribution center at 3051 Research Dr., from where it will begin delivering prescriptions in 2025.
Dallas is one of 20 cities where Amazon will open new centers, doubling the number of cities that it already offers same-day delivery prescriptions.
The 24-hour pharmacy will be added onto an existing 180,000-square-foot distribution warehouse; construction on the added pharmacy is set to start in February and is estimated to cost $1.6 million, according to a filing permit.
Currently, it takes an average of two days for customers to get medication delivered where same-day delivery isn't available. Amazon officials said the company aims to help fill care gaps by offering rapid delivery of medications and 24/7 access to a pharmacist so customers can get care within hours.
Amazon says it will reduce delivery time with the pharmacies, which are designed to be automated with robotic arms supervised by licensed pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.
"Amazon Pharmacy is integrating technology to modernize pharmacy while maintaining high-touch clinical care,” says VP of Amazon Pharmacy John Love in a statement. "We are reimagining health care delivery to meet customers where they are—online, on the go, and at home.”
The pharmacy space has become buzzy, in no small part due to Mark Cuban, who is changing the game with his Cost Plus Pharmacy, an online pharmacy that sells 100 of the most-often prescribed generic prescription drugs at a transparent, fixed-rate markup.
Amazon plans on opening other same-day delivery pharmacies in Boston, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Diego and other cities next year.
"We haven’t announced additional cities and will do so as plans become firm," an Amazon Pharmacy spokesperson told CoStar News. "Timing and details are still being determined, and delivery will be conducted by our standard vehicles."
Last year, Amazon started offering customers in College Station the option of getting their medications from an Amazon Pharmacy in 60 minutes or less by drone delivery. The Amazon Pharmacy same-day delivery service was introduced in New York and Los Angeles in March after launching in cities such as Indianapolis, Miami, Phoenix and Seattle.
