The Scoop
Amazon laid off around 80 employees from its pharmacy division Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter. The move comes after the e-commerce giant made large investments in its prescription drugs and healthcare businesses in recent years.
The affected workers include pharmacy technicians as well as team leads. Registered pharmacists were largely unimpacted, the people said.
“Although eliminating roles is always difficult, we are making these changes now to keep investing in improving the customer experience, which will strengthen our business for the long term,” Kelvin Downes, director of fulfillment at Amazon Pharmacy, wrote in an email to staff reviewed by Semafor.
A spokesperson for Amazon acknowledged the layoffs. “Like many businesses, we have been closely monitoring economic conditions and our organizational needs, and have made the decision to adjust resources. As a result, a small number of roles have been eliminated on the Amazon Pharmacy Services team,” the representative said in an email.
Know More
Amazon entered the pharmacy sector four years ago when it acquired PillPack, a startup that delivers different medications in a single package designed to help people remember to take them. In 2020, the tech giant introduced Amazon Pharmacy, a standalone prescription delivery service.
Amazon has laid off roughly 27,000 workers across its businesses this year. Some of the earlier cuts also impacted its pharmacy division.
