WBA planning to unveil tech-enabled health care start-up

Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) has announced plans to unveil a new tech-enabled health care startup later this year. WBA CFO James Kehoe shared the news at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, which also included updates on the company’s sale of Alliance Health to AmerisourceBergen, its partnership with Synchrony and Mastercard, and its recent investment in iA. The forthcoming venture, which Kehoe said would launch in its fiscal fourth quarter, is described in WBA’s presentation as “an integrated digital and physical, consumer-centric, technology-enabled health care delivery model, personalized for local communities.” WBA’s ultimate goal is to develop an integrated digital and physical consumer centric health care delivery model. Khoe also noted that Walgreens’ brand equity, store footprint, and pharmacist workforce put it in a unique position to simplify health care delivery through a single platform. He described the effort as a “company within a company” that WBA will allow to work at a faster pace than the overall enterprise, with separate incentives.