Founders of Amazon’s PillPack launch General Medicine, a new startup tackling the frustrations of U.S. healthcare

Seven years after selling their online pharmacy startup PillPack to Amazon for around $1 billion, TJ Parker and Elliot Cohen are back with a new idea—this time, they’re going after the broader healthcare experience.

The two just launched General Medicine, a platform they say aims to make getting medical care “as easy as shopping online.” They’re joined by Ashwin Muralidharan, who previously worked closely with Amazon’s top healthcare executive, Neil Lindsay.

General Medicine: The PillPack Founders’ Second Act to Revolutionize How Americans Access Care

General Medicine functions as a healthcare marketplace. Users can get matched with a provider based on their specific needs or just chat with someone about their symptoms. Whether you’re looking to refill a prescription or find a specialist, the goal is to simplify the process. The platform supports both insurance payments (with most major providers accepted) and cash.

To deliver care, the startup pulls from a mix of its own medical groups, local clinics, networks of specialists, and labs. It’s not just telehealth—they’re aiming to connect the dots between digital access and physical care.

PillPack cofounder and CEO T.J. Parker grew up around medicine—literally. The son of a pharmacist, Parker spent his teenage years working at his father’s drugstore, often delivering medications to homebound patients. He later enrolled at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, but grew disillusioned with where the industry was headed. That frustration helped fuel the idea for PillPack, which is now licensed in 47 states and has a team of over 66 employees.

A New Health-care Marketplace to Make Getting Medical Care “As Easy as Shopping Online”

General Medicine said it hopes to address “the terrible experience of American healthcare and create access to excellent care,” CNBC reported.

They left Amazon in 2022. They founded General Medicine in 2023 and quietly started serving patients earlier this year. The company is now launching publicly.

Their pitch is direct: U.S. healthcare is a mess, and they believe it doesn’t have to be this painful to get good care.

Amazon has been on its own healthcare push for years—some efforts stuck, others didn’t. The company shut down its in-house telehealth service and its fitness wearable, but still runs Amazon Pharmacy (born from the PillPack deal) and now owns One Medical after acquiring it in 2022 for $3.9 billion.

General Medicine isn’t trying to replace your doctor or become the next big healthcare provider overnight. But with two PillPack founders at the helm and a clear mission, it’s another serious attempt to fix parts of a system that many feel stopped working a long time ago.