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“Amazon wants to drive down the price of everything. They are the best at this,” said Huda Idrees, CEO and founder of Toronto-based Dot Health, a mobile app that manages people’s health information.

“And here’s the sad part: I don’t think they’re going to have a lot of competition. I think it’s going to be an easy win for them in Canada,” she added, noting that none of the domestic vendors have anything close to PillPack’s mass ability to deliver drugs to doorsteps. “The people who should be shaking in their boots right now is Shoppers Drug Mart.”

I don’t think they’re going to have a lot of competition. I think it’s going to be an easy win for them in Canada Huda Idrees, CEO and founder of Dot Health

Shoppers and its subsidiaries make up Canada’s largest retail pharmacy network. In publishing its 2019 fourth-quarter earnings Thursday, parent company Loblaw said Shoppers drove its overall retail segment growth, with same-store sales increasing by 3.6 per cent, compared to 1.9 per cent for Loblaw’s grocery division. Shoppers’ 1,300 locations make it by far the biggest pharmacy player in the country; its closest competitor, Rexall, has over 400 locations. (The parent companies of Shoppers and Rexall both declined to comment on the news of Amazon’s Canadian pharmacy trademark.)

There is, however, one digital upstart that’s already hoping to put a dent in the duo’s market dominance. Founded in 2018, PocketPills is a Surrey, B.C.-based full-service online pharmacy that delivers pre-sorted medication to patients in British Columbia, Alberta, Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Manitoba and Ontario. On Wednesday, the startup announced the close of a US$7.35-million financing round, which it said will allow it to introduce same-day delivery in some Canadian metro regions, as well as expand into Nova Scotia in the second quarter of 2020 and to Quebec later in the year.