That's insane. I don't see Walgreens or CVS to be any more competent than Amazon. It's the regulations that's keeping them straight. I'm really really hoping that this brings down the cost of medicines. The pricing of drugs in the US is ludicrous.

When I go to a pharmacy, I trust that they will make the medication that matches my prescription.

Amazon is _notorious_ for having counterfeit items commingled with the same bin code (I might be using the wrong term), e.g. for cellular phone chargers, and even things like t-shirts.

Because of this, I share the GP's concern that Amazon would to a terrible, un-trustable job at preventing such commingling of pharmaceutical products. Sure, their pharmacy suppliers might make them right, but that doesn't prevent some random jerk (or just someone w/ crappy safety practices?) from posting a counterfeit with the same labeling.

Thankfully, pharmaceuticals are regulated, whereas chargers and t-shirts aren't...

Do you really think Amazon is going to let anyone sell any drugs?

> Thankfully, pharmaceuticals are regulated, whereas chargers and t-shirts aren't...

Except, they are.

To begin with, selling counterfeit goods is flat out illegal.

Electronics have safety standards they are supposed to be tested against. Even clothing has safety standards around flammability.

If you dig deeply into generic drugs, they actually aren't all that well regulated[http://fortune.com/2013/01/10/are-generics-really-the-same-a...]. Legally a generic drug only has to be 80% as effective as the brand name drug it replaces, for psychoactive compounds that can be the difference between working and not working at all. Not so great for anti-depressants (or the vast majority of other compounds for that matter...)

that was called Alphabay and already exsists /s

There is now the Dream Market:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_Market

https://www.reddit.com/r/Dream_Market/comments/6pp9oi/dream_...

The better analogy in this case would be to an AmazonBasics USB cable, not to a phone charger.

Are there issues when anyone can provide a product? Yes. But this would certainly not involve Amazon opening the storefront to allow selling any sort of drugs, but rather them sourcing generic product themselves and selling it as private label.

I would have no problems trusting this product to be genuine, just as I have no problems trusting their other private label products. It's a different sort of issue.

> The better analogy in this case would be to an AmazonBasics USB cable

What's the story here? I purchased on (that failed quickly) and then another - which also failed - and gave up on those. I've actually never found a USB cable (that I often use as a charge) that I liked, but I've never set out on a quest to do so...

Is the AmazonBasics USB cable a well-known lemon?

I've only bought AmazonBasics lightning cables for a while now, they work great IMO. I've had maybe one or two fail out of a dozen or two that I own, and its failure was caused by pinching from my car console.

Edit: Before I was skeptical as to how much Amazon could bring down costs, but it looks like there's enough variance among pharmacy chain pricing for generics[0]. That Amazon could make massive strides if it could offer all drugs near the lowest sale price.

[0]: https://www.goodrx.com/

Also look up Walmart's $4 for a months prescription for common generic medicines (or $10 for three months.) Its cheaper than a cup of coffee in many places. https://www.walmart.com/cp/4-dollar-presscriptions/1078664

Publix does $4 prescriptions as well.

> I don't see Walgreens or CVS to be any more competent than Amazon.

The places with people behind the counter holding Pharmacist degrees? You trust LAZR shipping and the rest of the supply chain as much as them? Wow.

Also, selfishly, I don't want Amazon delivering meds because package theft will go through the roof when there's a chance of scoring an Amazon box with drugs.

Not that I disagree with your statement on reliability, but the DEA is not going to let drugs worth stealing sit on doorsteps. At worst you'll lose a box of antibiotics.

I wasn't aware that there were classes of drugs that could not be mailed. Researching this now, all I can find is that the mailer and recipient have to be authorized, but nothing about restrictions on painkillers, amphetamines, cough syrup, etc.

It's weird. I generally have to show ID when picking up from a pharmacy, and while I'm also unaware of any laws on the books prohibiting transmission of controlled substances through the mail, SWIM has had packages containing exactly that confiscated by the postmaster.

> SWIM has had packages containing exactly that confiscated by the postmaster.

Wow, I didn't expect to bump into the notorious SWIM on an HN thread.

Can't wait for the "comingled inventory"

You ordered blue pills, you got "blue pills."

What more could a consumer possibly want?

Just wait until Amazon starts selling generic viagra. Don't know where I first heard it but "Any sufficiently advanced spam is indistinguishable from content".

I hate to say it but that's probably the only way we'll get competitive drug prices in the US.

They definitely have an interest in stopping counterfeits if it makes them liable for injuries or other lawsuits (e.g. fake chargers, cables, hoverboards, eclipse glasses).

Amazon continues to sell the "SoClean CPAP Cleaner" even going so far as to stock it out of their own warehouses and offer Prime shipping.

This is a product which has been pulled from several CPAP vendors, likely due to the potential danger[0] posed by leaving Ozone in the CPAP and its ineffectiveness as an actual cleaner[1]. There's also no health warnings on the product and it makes misleading claims ("Destroys 99.9% of CPAP germs").

This product is particularly dangerous because CPAP users are particularly vulnerable to breathing problems potentially caused by Ozone exposure.

[0] https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/ozone/default.html

[1] https://www.epa.gov/indoor-air-quality-iaq/ozone-generators-...

This year they had to recall a bunch of eclipse glasses though.

There is 0% chance 3rd-party sellers would be allowed to list prescription drugs.

I bought 4-5 items this year that were sold and dispatched by Amazon which turned out to be counterfeit.

Even without direct commingled inventory the generic supply chain is riddled with counterfeit and quality control issues.

There is a very big difference between buying a Generic from the likes of TEVA or Novartis vs some low tier Indian or Chinese generic manufacturer.

Even large health care providers have been struggling with the quality of generic these days when not buying from the top 3 manufacturers im not seeing any reason for Amazon to do any better.

You, sir, seem to be suffering from a lack of information, over-confidence in marketing, and I kindly provide you this article: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-novartis-india-warning-id...

That’s actually drives my point even further if even Novartis which is the second largest manufacturer of generics in the world has supply chain issues.

I don't trust Amazon either, but they're talking to drug makers directly. They would be getting drugs directly from them.