MARKET
The growth of e-pharmacies in India Rahul Nath Choudhury, Research fellow, ICWA, explains what motivates people in the pharma industry to invest into e-pharmacies, along with various other growth factors associated with these
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f late, online pharmacy brand PharmEasy acquired majority stake in diagnosis firm Thyrocare. This was the second big acquisition after Medlife by PharmEasy within a month. Online giant Amazon began doorstep delivery of drugs. Indian conglomerates Tata and Reliance acquired controlling stakes in home-grown startups 1mg and Netmed, respectively. These transactions took place despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and nation-wide lockdown. This re-
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EXPRESS PHARMA
August 2021
flects a strong faith among the investors about the prospect of a shining future of Indian online pharmacies. Inflow of capital in such big amounts from leading enterprises will boost the confidence among the investors. So, what is motivating the investors or what is fuelling the growth prospects of this sector? The most important driving force behind this is the nature of the product. Unlike other items, we do not choose medicines from a homogeneous group of
products. Consumers do not evaluate the different features of the product, or want to touch and feel it before purchase. As compared to any other product brand, people tend to have higher trust with a medicine brand as it is prescribed by a registered doctor. So, the issue of repeated consumption of a brand or buying it from earlier experience does not hold true in this sector. These help the consumer to purchase medicines online without hesitation. The pharmaceutical industry is an organised sector. All
the manufacturers and sellers are formally registered. The laws regulating the players in this industry are much stringent. This, at least, reduces, if not dismisses the possibility of purchasing dubious drugs. Online pharmacies enabled with highly-advanced technology are much more equipped to follow a stringent tracking mechanism to eliminate middlemen and the risk of consuming counterfeit and substandard drugs. Modern technology like AI has also made it possible to remind the
