Amazon is adding a prescription drug discount program to its growing health care business.
The retail giant said Tuesday that it will launch RxPass, a subscription service for customers who have Prime memberships. Amazon said people will pay $5 a month to fill as many prescriptions as they need from a list of about 50 generic medications, which are generally cheaper versions of brand-name drugs.
The company said the flat fee could cover a list of medications like the antibiotic amoxicillin and the anti-inflammatory drug naproxen.
Sildenafil also made the list. It's used to treat erectile dysfunction under the brand name Viagra and also treats a form of high blood pressure.
Amazon sells a range of generic drugs through its pharmacy service. Some already cost as liitle as $1 for a 30-day supply, so the benefit of this new program will vary by customer.
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In a blog post on Wednesday, the company said the program, called AmazonSmile, will shut down by February 20 because it had "not grown to create the impact" the retailer had hoped.
The program doesn't use insurance, and people with government-funded Medicaid or Medicare coverage are not eligible. It will be available in 42 states and Washington, D.C. at launch.
Any program that gets low-cost generic drugs to more patients "is a good thing," said Karen Van Nuys, an economist who studies drug pricing at the University of Southern California. But she added that she wasn't sure how much of an impact RxPass will have.
She noted that the program is limited to Amazon Prime customers. Other options like the Mark Cuban CostPlus Drug Co. sell more generic drugs, many for under $5.
"I just don't know that it's expanding access to a new set of patients," Van Nuys said.
Still, the move could help the company take up some more space in the health care market, even though it has not always been successful in its aim. Last year, the company shuttered its hybrid virtual, in-home care service called Amazon Care after it failed to get traction from employers. And Haven, a company Amazon created in collaboration with JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway to improve health costs, dissolved a year earlier than that.
Amazon has said its online drug store Amazon Pharmacy is a key part of its health care plan, along with primary care organization One Medical, which the online giant is seeking to acquire for $3.9 billion. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating the proposed buyout.
In November, the company also said it would begin offering "Amazon Clinic," a messaging service that connects patients with doctors for about two dozen common conditions, such as allergies and hair loss.
Here are the companies that have laid off employees this year — so far
Alphabet
Alphabet
Google's parent said Jan. 20 it is laying off 12,000 workers across product areas and regions, or 6% of its workforce. Alphabet added 50,000 workers over the past two years as the pandemic created greater demand for its services. But recent recession fears has advertisers pulling back from its core digital ad business.
"Over the past two years we've seen periods of dramatic growth," CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to employees. "To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today."
Microsoft
Microsoft
The tech behemoth is laying off 10,000 employees, the company said in a securities filing on Jan. 18. Globally, Microsoft has 221,000 full-time employees with 122,000 of them based in the US.
CEO Satya Nadella said during a talk at Davos that "no one can defy gravity" and that Microsoft could not ignore the weaker global economy.
"We're living through times of significant change, and as I meet with customers and partners, a few things are clear," Nadella wrote in a memo. "First, as we saw customers accelerate their digital spend during the pandemic, we're now seeing them optimize their digital spend to do more with less."
Vox Media
Vox Media
The publisher of the news and opinion website Vox, tech website The Verge and New York Magazine, announced Jan. 20 that it's cutting 7% of its staff, or about 130 people.
"We are experiencing and expect more of the same economic and financial pressures that others in the media and tech industries have encountered," chief executive Jim Bankoff said in a memo.
BlackRock
BlackRock
Layoffs are also hitting Wall Street hard. The world's largest asset manager is eliminating 500 jobs, or less than 3% of its workforce.
Today's "unprecedented market environment" is a stark contrast from its attitude over the last three years, when it increased its staff by about 22%. Its last major round of cutbacks was in 2019.
Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The bank will lay off up to 3,200 workers this month amid a slump in global dealmaking activity. More than a third of the cuts are expected to be from the firm's trading and banking units. Goldman Sachs had almost 50,000 employees at the end of last year's third quarter.
Coinbase
Coinbase
The crypto brokerage announced in early January that it's cutting 950 people -- almost one in five employees in its workforce. The move comes just a few months after Coinbase laid off 1,100 people.
Though Bitcoin had a solid start to the new year, crypto companies were slammed by significant drops in prices of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
McDonald's
McDonald's
McDonald's, which thrived during the pandemic, is planning on cutting some of its corporate staff, CEO Chris Kempczinski said this month.
"We will evaluate roles and staffing levels in parts of the organization and there will be difficult discussions and decisions ahead," Kempszinski said, outlining a plan to "break down internal barriers, grow more innovative and reduce work that doesn't align with the company's priorities."
Amazon
Amazon
As the new year began, Amazon said it plans to lay off more than 18,000 employees. Departments from human resources to the company's Amazon Stores will be affected.
"Companies that last a long time go through different phases. They're not in heavy people expansion mode every year," CEO Andy Jassy said in a memo to employees.
Amazon boomed during the pandemic, and hired rapidly over the last few years. But demand has cooled as consumers return to their offline lives and battle high prices. Amazon says it has more than 800,000 employees.
Salesforce
Salesforce
Salesforce will cut about 10% of its workforce from its more than 70,000 employess and reduce its real estate footprint. In a letter to employees, Salesforce's chair and co-CEO Marc Benioff admitted to adding too much to the company's headcount early in the pandemic.
Spotify
Spotify
Spotify said Jan. 23 that it will cut 6 percent of its workforce to reduce costs, joining tech companies including Amazon and Microsoft in slashing headcount as the global economy slows.
In a letter to employees posted on the company's website, CEO Daniel Ek took full responsibility for the job cuts, which he called "difficult but necessary."
The Stockholm-headquartered music streaming business had about 9,800 employees globally as of Sept. 30, according to an earnings report.
Stitch Fix
The online personalized subscription clothing retailer said it plans to lay off 20% of its salaried staff.
"We will be losing many talented team members from across the company and I am truly sorry," Stitch Fix founder and former CEO Katrina Lake wrote in a blog post.
