NEW YORK (Reuters) - The chief medical officer of Amazon.com's pharmacy unit is hopeful that U.S. health secretary nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr. can be an ally for healthcare companies, he said at a panel at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York on Wednesday.

"Some of the comments he's made I'm really optimistic about," Amazon Pharmacy Chief Medical Officer Vin Gupta said, referring to Kennedy's positions on food safety, nutrition and chronic disease. "As a physician - if that's the focus - fantastic. We all want to work together."