Independent pharmacy, new opportunities are coming!

【Pharmaceutical Network Market Analysis】With the increasingly fierce market competition, the pharmaceutical retail industry has passed the era of "lying down to make money", in order to race, chain head enterprises have accelerated the pace of expansion, through restructuring and mergers and acquisitions to annex small and medium-sized chain and independent pharmacies
.
In this context, for independent pharmacies that want to continue to operate, how to survive in the cracks is a big problem
.
The good news is that as collection into pharmacies becomes a trend, new opportunities for individual pharmacies are coming! Recently, the Jiangsu Provincial Medical Insurance Bureau issued the "Announcement on the Qualification Confirmation Results of the First Batch of Designated Retail Pharmacies Applying for Participation in Quantity Procurement of Medical Insurance" (hereinafter referred to as the "Announcement"
).
The list shows that 1,646 individual pharmacies and 328 chain pharmacies will be qualified to participate in volume procurement and sunshine procurement, and the number of pharmacies participating in the sale of collective medicine in the province has reached 2,519
.
According to the previous requirements of the Jiangsu Medical Insurance Bureau, for the selected drugs purchased on the provincial platform with quantity, the designated pharmacies of the medical insurance should purchase according to the price of the network and sell
them according to the "zero difference" rate of the purchase price.
This means that these designated retail pharmacies that are eligible to participate in collective procurement and sunshine procurement will sell centralized procurement drugs
at the same price as public hospitals.
Judging from the list, in addition to Yifeng Pharmacy, Neptune Star Pharmacy, Baixin Pharmacy, Simcere Zaikang and other large chain pharmacies, more independent pharmacies are participating, accounting for more than 65%
of the total.
The impact of centralized procurement on retail pharmacies is an issue of concern and discussion in
the industry.
On September 27, Yifeng Pharmacy said in response to investors' questions about the impact of centralized procurement on retail pharmacies, saying that centralized procurement is conducive to reducing the burden of patients' medication, promoting the outflow of hospital prescriptions and the separation
of medicines.
For retail pharmacies, in the short term, it can improve the bargaining power of upstream manufacturers and increase customer flow; In the long run, pharmaceutical separation will help expand the pharmaceutical
retail industry.
Compared with chain pharmacies, independent pharmacies are weak, and pharmaceutical companies generally rarely delegate heavy drugs such as Bai Sugar Ping, Ambono, Amberway, and Baixin to independent stores
.
For the monomer pharmacy, although the profit will be lost due to the impact of zero price difference, the monomer pharmacy has the hope of obtaining admission tickets, getting good resources, and the pharmacy will bring drainage and usher in new development opportunities
.
So, overall, the benefits will outweigh the impact
of the decline in profits.
In addition, the industry pointed out that independent pharmacies also have their own advantages, such as more flexible operations, which can sell "small and beautiful" non-standard categories
such as traditional Chinese medicine physiotherapy and massage and other services.
The industry expects that pharmacies will have three forms in the future: 50 billion sales giant chains encouraged and supported by the state; Very professional DTP pharmacy; Focusing on non-standard multi-scene service pharmacies
.
As "pharmacies enter centralized procurement" has become a trend, the industry suggests that independent pharmacies can actively participate in order to obtain the qualification to sell collective medicines, so as to obtain a larger customer flow, and stick to pharmacy patients through professional TCM physiotherapy, TCM consultation and other services, improve service quality, dig deep into patients' health needs, and then improve word of mouth, increase customer flow and income
.
However, the industry also reminds that it is not easy for pharmacies to do a good job in TCM physiotherapy and TCM consultation, and it requires enough patience to operate and layout, and do not follow the traditional road of "sales first", which will affect the market reputation and reputation
of pharmacies.
Disclaimer: Under no circumstances does the information or opinions expressed in this article constitute investment advice
to anyone.