"Naked running" for many years finally wears legal coats, online and offline "price difference" gradually lost, new regulations for online drug sales landed, new rivers and lakes will be born?

The Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Drug Online Sales (hereinafter referred to as the Measures) came into force on December 1, and the online sales of prescription drugs that have been "naked" for many years have finally been cloaked in legality

1 The "fusion" ecology is gradually formed

Can online and offline ecology be integrated?

Once upon a time, the collision of Internet thinking and pharmacy thinking made many offline pharmacies have a "grudge" about online channels, believing that pharmaceutical e-commerce is "burning money circle users, building a platform to harvest traffic", which is different from the concept of "heavy cost benefits" of offline pharmacies

Although with the passage of time, online and offline have begun to cooperate

In the Measures, it is clarified that the drug network sales enterprise must be an offline entity pharmacy enterprise, a drug marketing authorization holder (only the drug that can sell the drug that has obtained the drug registration certificate) or the business enterprise that has obtained the drug business license; At the same time, considering the drug safety risks and online and offline consistency management requirements, the real-name system is implemented for the online sales of prescription drugs, and the prescription review and allocation is carried out in accordance with the regulations; It is clear that packaging, labels and other information

The proposal of a series of business red lines, on the basis of compacting third-party responsibilities, has also promoted the standardized development of the pharmaceutical circulation industry and achieved healthy competition

It is worth mentioning that if online and offline want to form true consistency and synergy, cost is a core factor

"For a long time, offline pharmacies have been asset-heavy operations, and an important part of the operating costs is the cost of supervision, and because there is no formal rule landing, the cost of online drug sales has always been very advantageous

In this regard, a pharmaceutical e-commerce source pointed out that the new regulations are bound to cause an increase in online operating costs, which is beyond doubt, but it is also understandable

The person pointed out that some of the provisions in the "Measures" have been completed and some are in the process of being adjusted, after all, it still has a three-month adjustment period

Some pharmacy operators pointed out that after the trend of online drug sales has been determined and legally compliant, pharmacies must re-recognize this channel and spend more effort to operate, because it will become a huge increment

It is worth mentioning that in the view of the aforementioned pharmaceutical e-commerce people, this ecological integration also includes upstream pharmaceutical companies

"The digital marketing services provided by pharmaceutical e-commerce in the whole life cycle of drugs, at different stages, we have targeted adaptation strategies, which can effectively replace the supplementation of some traditional marketing methods before, and can also avoid those gray areas, so this is also an important reason why

2 Will online prescription drugs be "bitter before sweet"?

After the promulgation of the "Measures", the future sales trend of online prescription drugs is undoubtedly the

In the eyes of many people, the first beneficiaries of "prescription circulation" are pharmaceutical e-commerce

According to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) survey data, China's online retail prescription drug sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 53% from 2015 to 2020, of which the growth rate from 2019 to 2020 will be as high as 79%, and the market size will reach 25 billion yuan

The data of The Intranet also shows that in 2021, offline offline sales of drugs + non-drugs will be 571.

From the perspective of drug type distribution, the market share of chemical drugs in drugs sold online is the largest, accounting for 60.
48% in 2021, slightly higher than the share of chemical drugs in physical pharmacies of 57%.

From the distribution of prescription drugs/over-the-counter drugs, prescription drugs have the largest market share, accounting for 65.
4% in 2021, compared with the 71.
5% share of prescription drugs in
physical pharmacies, a difference of only 6.
1%, which shows that the former is in rapid growth.

"Prescription drugs are undoubtedly a core business of online drug sales in the future, after all, our biggest market is the chronic disease market, and the value of prescription drugs in the field of chronic diseases in the future has been seen by everyone, and I believe that everyone has expectations
for this.
" The above-mentioned pharmaceutical e-commerce sources pointed out
.

However, it is worth mentioning that the "Measures" also raise the threshold and requirements for online sales of prescription drugs, and the management is more refined
.
This is reflected in several aspects: on the basis of ensuring that the source of prescriptions is true and reliable, it is clear that pharmaceutical online retail enterprises should also take measures to avoid the repeated use of prescriptions; It is clarified that the date of the report on the change of qualification of the drug network sales enterprise should be within ten working days, and the management should be more refined; Clarified the management requirements for the online sales of prescription drugs, stipulated that prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs should be displayed separately, and emphasized the management requirements of "prescription after drug" and prescription review; Drugs required for distribution should be placed in an independent space and clearly marked, and the increase in the distribution threshold further strengthens the standardization and orderliness of the
market.

Shao Qing, CEO of Pharmaceutical Empowerment, pointed out that the requirements for prescription drug display still have a great impact on the industry, if prescription drugs cannot be reasonably displayed, but open sales by hospitals or Internet hospitals, it will have a huge impact on the sales process of online prescription drugs, and consumers may need to consult first and then prescribe drugs, rather than searching and then buying drugs now, which may lead to a great weakening
of drug price comparison and consumer self-decision-making.
This also means that which platform has "big doctors" and "good doctors" in the future will be more
attractive to consumers in the future.

Will this change in the drug buying process have a temporary impact on the sales of prescription drugs sold online?

"For consumers who are accustomed to one-click ordering, the new drug purchase process may not be very suitable in the short term, but in the long run, the user's adaptation is still not a problem
.
" And whether from the economic cost or time cost, online drug purchase is still more convenient
than offline.
In addition, after the new regulations are implemented, new services
may also be derived from this.
In the long run, we judge that the impact is not too large
.
The aforementioned pharmaceutical e-commerce sources pointed out
.

But he also agreed that the Internet medical platform with stronger qualifications and abilities will indeed be more attractive in the future, which has been reflected
in the policy.

"Before the Health Commission also issued the Internet diagnosis and treatment rules, which actually ensured the status of Internet diagnosis and treatment, this time the "Measures" also solved the problem of prescription online sales of prescription drugs, fully reflecting the logic of
the policy.
In the future, we will also be committed to calling for and promoting the slow introduction
of a consensus online diagnosis and treatment standard for a specific disease in a large category.
The aforementioned pharmaceutical e-commerce sources pointed out
.

3 New players or accelerated influx

Every new policy landing will often bring new market opportunities and a new round of industry reshuffle
.

Many people in the industry predict that with the landing of the "Measures" and the clarification of policies, more and more traffic platforms will pour into the cup of "online drug sales" and create a scene entrance
suitable for themselves around their own strengths.

This is undoubtedly a challenge to the current status of JD Health and Ali Health, and the participation of a large number of new enterprises will also bring about the "second take-off"
of the Internet pharmaceutical industry.

However, long-term observers of Internet medicine pointed out that for health care products or nutritional supplements, it is impossible to rule out the possibility of profits for new players, but for the core pharmaceutical category, the possibility of a new pole is unlikely
.
Because there were also short video platforms to sell drugs live before, they were later banned
successively.

"Jingdong Health and Ali Health still have many years of precipitation
in the field of online drug sales.
Taking Jingdong Health as an example, it has 20 pharmaceutical warehouses and more than 500 non-drug special warehouses in the country, coupled with the blessing of Jingdong Logistics and Jingdong Health Internet Hospital, whether it is the supply chain level or the service level, it is very difficult
for latecomers to surpass.
With the increase in the cost of online operation supervision, there are actually fewer and fewer players with the strength to participate, and the trend of concentrating on the head will become stronger
.
The person said
.

After the new regulations are implemented, there are changes in mode with the participants
.

Although B2C and O2O can achieve online sales of prescription drug operations, but most of the prescription drug patients long-term use, the formation of medical insurance dependence, from the beginning of 2021 medical insurance two fixed method policy requirements, online channels to obtain medical insurance qualifications is the premise of having offline stores, so many analysts believe that the O2O model will be the future to facilitate the realization of the whole process of traceability and have the advantages of medical insurance qualifications of the ideal model
.

In addition, the "Measures" this time make it clear that the drug supervision and management departments at the districted city and county levels are responsible for the supervision and management of the online sales of drugs in their respective administrative regions, and supervise and manage the activities of
drug retail enterprises in selling drugs through the network.
And for the first time, it is clear that drug network retail enterprises should be responsible for the quality and safety of drug distribution, and a series of regulations
have been made on the conditions for drug distribution.

This also means that the short-term landing model of new retail will still have the nature of territorial supervision, and considering that most of the patients' medication is secondary drug demand, the regionalized O2O connecting online and offline pharmacies is expected to become the mainstream drug landing distribution model
.

"However, the requirements for drug distribution in the "Measures" are actually not low, and the distribution of many O2O platforms may not be qualified enough, which requires
consideration of feasibility.
In fact, in addition to some cold chain transportation of drugs, most drugs may not need such a specification of distribution for the time being, and this part of the cost increase may eventually be passed on
to consumers.
It is believed that under the premise of compliance and safety in the future, there may be some room
for adjustment according to the actual situation in the process of travel.
The observer noted
.

He also said that all models must ultimately serve users, and in the future, in the general trend of online and offline integration, which type of service model will win, ultimately depends on the actual needs and scenarios
of users.
But in general, with the convergence of regulation and the fairness of the market in the future, drug prices will become more and more transparent, and opportunities are equal for pharmaceutical e-commerce and offline pharmacies
.