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Amazon's Battle for Corner Pharmacy Is Fought Over Phone and Fax

The internet giant’s PillPack unit wants patients to switch, but chains like CVS are working hard to keep their customers. Are they playing fair?

Sealed packets of time-stamped medications from PillPack.

Sealed packets of time-stamped medications from PillPack.

Source: PillPack

Getting into the pharmacy business was easy for Amazon.com: It paid $753 million to buy the mail-order startup PillPack. The hard part has been prying patients away from their local drugstore.

Since being acquired by the internet giant, PillPack has run into stiff opposition, from chains like CVS with thousands of stores to family-owned operations with a single shop. Having seen their business of selling shampoo and razor blades chipped away by online sellers, the drugstores are trying to keep Amazon from wresting away their piece of the $333 billion U.S. prescription-drug industry.