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Amazon Pharmacy has launched two new prescription services, the company said in a May 11 blog post. The first feature, the Amazon Prime prescription savings benefit, allows Prime members to search for their medications and compare costs at Amazon Pharmacy and more than 60,000 other retail pharmacies. ... The second new feature allows Amazon Pharmacy customers to check their insurance co-pay before ordering their medication. (Anderson, 5/13)

Uber, the company that started out as a ride-sharing service and later expanded into the home delivery of meals, has gotten into the business of delivering many prescription medicines and is expanding into Fairfield and New Haven counties. Company officials announced the expansion into Connecticut this week after having completed a successful pilot program in three Texas cities. Uber had also launched the service in six cities around the country as well as in Orange County, California. (Turmelle, 5/18)

Beginning this fall, all Montana physicians will be able to dispense medications they prescribe to patients, not just those whose offices are at least 10 miles (about 16 kilometers) away from a pharmacy. The catalyst for passing the legislation was a June 2020 lawsuit by the Institute for Justice challenging the constitutionality of the ban along with an acknowledgement by the chair of the Montana Pharmacy Association that the organization had previously opposed similar legislation to protect its own business model. (Hanson, 5/13)

In the ever-increasing struggle to find reasonable prescription drug prices, a new Texas company is helping consumers save money on the meds they need most. ScriptCo, based in Waco, was founded by Zack Zeller and Mark McCormick, to offer consumers discounted prices on prescription drugs. Why? Because they grew tired of consumers paying ridiculously huge price variations for the same medications. (Roberson, 5/17)

The pharmaceutical industry spent a record $92 million lobbying the federal government during the first three months of 2021, putting Big Pharma on track to break its annual spending record for a second year in a row. The intense lobbying comes as countries across the world are demanding access to COVID vaccine technology and many Democrats are pushing to expand Medicare and lower prescription drug prices. Big Pharma’s lobbying expenditures represent a 6.3 percent increase in spending over the first quarter of 2020, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Drug companies would go on to collectively spend more money on lobbying in 2020 than ever before. Meanwhile, the COVID pandemic spread across the globe, and the United States and other wealthy nations poured billions of dollars into vaccine development and distribution through deals and partnerships with private pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms. (Ludwig, 5/8)