TJ Parker and Elliot Cohen, two executives at the helm of Amazon’s foray into health care, will leave the firm at the end of this month.
Parker and Cohen co-founded PillPack, a prescription pharmacy firm, in 2013.
PillPack was purchased by Amazon in 2018 for around $750 million.
Two Amazon executives who were pivotal in the retail giant’s drive into health care are leaving.
According to a statement on Parker’s LinkedIn site, TJ Parker and Elliot Cohen, co-founders of prescription medication business PillPack, will quit Amazon at the end of this month. PillPack was purchased by Amazon in 2018 for around $750 million.
Parker and Cohen were instrumental in the establishment of Amazon Pharmacy, the company’s online pharmacy for delivering prescription prescriptions in the United States, following the acquisition. Parker and Cohen were both vice presidents of pharmacy until recently, when they were demoted to consulting roles, according to Axios.
I’m writing to inform you that Elliot and I will be leaving PillPack and Amazon at the end of the month,” Parker wrote. “Of everything, we’ll remember most fondly the people we encountered along the road and who joined us on our voyage, and we’ll miss you all.”
In 2013, Parker and Cohen co-founded PillPack. Parker attended pharmacy school in Boston, where his father worked as a pharmacist. He met Cohen while he was attending MIT’s business school. Parker’s father joined PillPack as one of the company’s first pharmacists when it began serving clients in 2014.
Amazon has increased its efforts in health care in recent years, though not all of them have been effective. The pharmacy company has struggled to gain traction, and Amazon recently declared that it would discontinue its telemedicine programme Amazon Care because it was not a “full enough product” for customers.
Amazon’s joint venture with Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase to reduce health-care expenses disintegrated early last year. Haven was the organisation, and its anticipated entry into the health-care sector had sent provider shares plunging.
Nonetheless, Amazon is pouring money and resources into the space. Amazon announced in July that it would acquire One Medical for $3.9 billion, bringing with it a network of boutique primary care clinics.
Prior to Parker and Cohen’s departure, Amazon restructured its health leadership. CNBC reported in December that the corporation appointed former Prime executive Neil Lindsay to lead its health efforts. In January, John Love, a former vice president in Amazon’s Alexa group, was named vice president of Pharmacy and PillPack.
Lindsay described Parker and Cohen’s departure as “bittersweet” in a memo to the health services team on Monday, thanking the PillPack founders for helping build the strategy “to help improve the customer health care experience.”
Lindsay writes, “Driven by their vision and client passion, the PillPack business and capabilities became the cornerstone of Amazon Pharmacy.
