• Evercore says Amazon Pharmacy's revenue may hit $2 billion this year.
• Interest in Amazon's online pharmacy service rose to 45% in Evercore's survey from 34% last year.
• The US prescription market is worth about $435 billion.

Amazon's online pharmacy business is drawing significantly more customer interest, and it could generate roughly $2 billion in revenue this year, according to the financial firm Evercore.

In a note published last week, the Evercore analyst Mark Mahaney highlighted his firm's recent survey indicating rising interest in and usage of Amazon Pharmacy.

A record 45% of Amazon customers surveyed said they were "extremely interested" or "very interested" in buying online medications from the company, up from 34% last year and from 14% in 2020. The note said it was the largest year-over-year increase in purchase intent for pharmaceuticals among Amazon shoppers in eight years. Evercore ran the survey in June and included 1,100 respondents.

The survey also found that 13% of Amazon customers said they had purchased pharma products from Amazon, compared with 9% last year.

Evercore estimated, based on "several sources," that all this could result in roughly $2 billion in revenue for Amazon's pharmacy business. Business Insider previously reported that Amazon's internal forecast showed its pharmacy business generating $1.8 billion in sales after recording $1.25 billion last year.

Amazon's growth is squeezing retail pharmacy businesses too. On Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Walgreens was in talks to sell itself to a private-equity firm.

Evercore believes half of Prime membership households will eventually shop for online medications on Amazon, which could result in $33 billion in additional revenue and $1.6 billion in operating income over the next three to five years.

"This inflection in consumer intent to purchase prescriptions online, and on Amazon, may well be a sign of Amazon closing in on a potential Rx market unlock," Mahaney wrote in the note.

Mahaney also wrote that Amazon was aggressively expanding its same-day-delivery service for pharmaceutical products, noting a recent announcement that said it would cover nearly half of US consumers by the end of 2025. He also highlighted the sheer size of the US prescription market, about $435 billion, of which Amazon Pharmacy has penetrated less than 1%.

Amazon's spokesperson declined to comment.

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