Amazon, Berkshire, JPM Haven calls it quits

RPF- One of the bigger non-COVID healthcare stories of today was that Haven, the healthcare collab between Amazon, JP Morgan, and Berkshire Hathaway is closing shop following departures from their CEO Atul Gawande and other top execs. The company was much touted in 2018 when it was announced given the reputations of the 3 companies that backed it with the explicit goal to lower costs and improve outcomes for the companies’ and their employees. \r\n\r\nThere was a lot of excitement but also a lot of skepticism in 2018 and it looks like the skeptics were right on this one. Healthcare is notoriously hard to disrupt for a number of reasons and seems Haven couldn’t break major ground. Unfortunately, not much is known publicly about what they tried and lessons learned, etc.

apples- I wonder what this will mean for other disruptive efforts like the Amazon Pharmacy and EQRx

curpro- I was excited to see where this might go. I wonder what the companies will try to do in the future as this problem is not going anywhere. A shame that they couldn’t make work what they wanted.

PharmacistDan- Warren Buffet said they tried to fight the tapeworm and the tapeworm won. Says something about healthcare in America.