Amazon and Apple Getting Big Into Healthcare Won’t Be Easy: Ex Apple CEO Sculley

| Health Care

Apple and Amazon have been rumored to eyeing bigger pushes into the healthcare market. Former Apple CEO John Sculley tells TheStreet such arrivals won’t happen so easily.

Brian Sozzi

It won’t be super easy for Apple (AAPL – Get Report) and Amazon (AMZN – Get Report) to make big pushes into the healthcare space.

That is according to former Apple CEO John Sculley.

“It would make sense for Amazon to get into healthcare [PBM] industry,” Sculley told TheStreet in an interview when asked about rumors of Amazon looking to enter the pharmacy industry. “The challenge for Amazon is not that they don’t have the technology prowess, it’s the complexity of the domain of healthcare.” Sculley explained that it would be logical for Amazon to get into the supply chain management side of the business — the only question being does it partner with someone or build out a drug supply chain of its own.

As for Apple, which has been rumored to have shown interest in buying a health clinic provider, Sculley said such a move would come with challenges as well.

Sculley knows a thing or two about the healthcare industry. He is an investor and chief marketing officer at upstart pharmacy benefit manager RxAdvance. “I think RXAdvance is the most interesting company I have worked at since Apple — we are disrupting the most vulnerable and expensive area of the market.” Sculley said he expects RxAdvance to boast $2 billion in contracted revenue by 2018 and $10 billion by 2020.

Apple is a holding in Jim Cramer’s Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL? Learn more now.

Comments are closed.