Amazon, JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway to create new healthcare company

Online retail giant Amazon, Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and the New York bank JPMorgan Chase are teaming up to create a healthcare company "free from profit-making incentives and constraints".

Mr Buffett, in a prepared statement, called the skyrocketing costs of healthcare in the US the "hungry tapeworm on the American economy".

The ambitious goal, they say, is in the early planning stages, but the announcement sent a shockwave through the health industry.

Shares of healthcare companies are falling in early trading.