Founders of Amazon’s PillPack launch health-care marketplace startup

After selling online pharmacy PillPack to Amazon seven years ago, the founding team is launching a brand new company that goals to make the experience of getting medical care “as easy as shopping online.”

PillPack founders TJ Parker and Elliot Cohen on Thursday launched a brand new enterprise called General Medicine. Parker and Cohen are joined by Ashwin Muralidharan, who most recently served because the technical adviser, or “shadow,” to Amazon’s top health executive Neil Lindsay.

General Medicine is a web-based health-care marketplace, where users can get connected with a provider based on specific medical needs or chat with someone about their symptoms. The platform might be used for a variety of health needs, equivalent to securing prescriptions or locating a specialist.

Users will pay with money or insurance, with most major providers accepted, the corporate said.

General Medicine relies on a mixture of its own medical groups, networks of specialists and native providers, clinics and labs to offer care.

Parker and Cohen left Amazon in 2022, 4 years after Amazon acquired PillPack for about $750 million. General Medicine was founded in 2023, and commenced serving patients earlier this yr before launching broadly this month.

The corporate says it hopes to deal with “the terrible experience of American healthcare and create access to excellent care.”

It’s an analogous goal held by Amazon, which has sought to disrupt health-care within the U.S. over the past several years by applying its “customer obsessed” mentality and rapid delivery capabilities. It’s had mixed success, sunsetting some offerings like a telehealth service and a fitness wearable.

The corporate operates Amazon Pharmacy, which was born out of the PillPack acquisition. It also acquired primary care provider One Medical in 2022 for $3.9 billion, giving it each a web-based and brick-and-mortar health-care presence.

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