On Thursday, GoodRx (GDRX) launched a new way to pay for and get prescriptions filled that mimics the e-commerce experience. The company will eventually build it out for all its pharmacy partners. 

The new offering for consumers includes finding the best price for the drug and allows users to pay for prescriptions, all without leaving the GoodRx site. The customer can then just go to the pharmacy counter and pick it up, or if the retailer has a delivery option, choose to have it delivered. Previously, customers could only find the coupons on the site and would have to go into the stores to fill the prescriptions.

GoodRx

Hy-Vee, a retailer in the Midwest, is the first partner for the new service. 

"Now, when a person searches for their medication on GoodRx and selects Hy-Vee as their preferred pharmacy, the system will check for medication inventory, validate their prescription, and enable them to pay online before picking up their prescription in-store," the company said in a statement Thursday.

GoodRX is also in discussions to roll out the same service, on the website or through the app, with its other retail partners. It currently partners with retailers like Costco (COST) and Target (TGT) and pharmacies like CVS (CVS) and Walgreens (WBA). GoodRx declined to confirm which partners were in active discussions. But CEO Wendy Barnes told Yahoo Finance in an exclusive interview that there is a high level of interest. 

Streamlining prescription services has been a key theme in recent years across the industry.

Walgreens and CVS allow customers to re-order prescriptions through apps and pick up at drive-throughs or via same-day delivery. Walmart (WMT) also started offering same-day prescription delivery last year, with the option to add prescriptions to its online shopping cart along with regular grocery items. Amazon (AMZN) customers can fill prescriptions as part of their online shopping on the site.

Barnes, a former executive at Rite Aid, Cigna's Express Scripts (CI), and Pfizer (PFE), said that having a digital experience can help bring more customers back to the pharmacies — which are currently battling both front-end and prescription competition from online retailers as well as generic providers like Hims & Hers (HIMS).

"[Consumers] want to know that [their prescription] is going to be there, that they're not going to have to wait in line and find out that it's not covered. All of that is done [through GoodRx]," she said.

Barnes said adding the ability to purchase other items in the store, like Amazon and Walmart, is a next step and a goal for GoodRx. 

The launch with Hy-Vee means that GoodRx has all its coding ready to go for whichever partner chooses to launch next, Barnes said. 

The timing of the announcement also coincides with a shifting market for pharmacies. In the past year or so, one major retail pharmacy, Rite Aid, went bankrupt. The other two giants, Walgreens and CVS, are shrinking their footprints. 

"Obviously, retail pharmacies are under a bit of pressure from a margin perspective, and prioritizing where they invest is paramount. The good news is as we're doing this, we're delivering more consumers back in their [stores]," Barnes said.

Anjalee Khemlani is the senior health reporter at Yahoo Finance, covering all things pharma, insurance, care services, digital health, PBMs, and health policy and politics. That includes GLP-1s, of course. Follow Anjalee on social media platforms X, LinkedIn, and Bluesky @AnjKhem.

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