Online Generic Medicine Store

What is a branded medicine?

A branded medicine is an original product developed by a pharmaceutical company. Company invests considerable amount in development of these medicines. These medicines are generally patented & the originator company gets sole rights to manufacture and distribute these medicines.

What is a Generic medicine?

Generic medicines act as substitute/copy for their branded counterparts. They are sold without any license & after the expiry of patent or other exclusivity rights of their branded counterparts. They contain same active ingredients as their branded equivalents.

A nice graphical illustration can be found here,

Facts & Figures

India is one of the biggest manufacturers of generic medicines.
India is frontrunner in the export of generic medicines.
Indian generic medicine exports are HUGE. Around Rs. 50,000 crore/Year.
Today, the Indian pharmaceutical industry is one of the world’s largest and most developed.
India exports medicines to over 200 countries which include the highly regulated markets of US, Europe, Japan and Australia.
The Indian pharmaceutical industry is worth Rs.1 lakh crore.

Use of generic drugs is increasing rapidly all over the world. Even though India is one of the biggest manufacturer & largest exporter, it is most unfortunate that use of generic drugs is less in India. People are still dying every day just because they do not afford expensive medication. Indian central government & state governments (except Rajasthan state) are not doing much for promotion of generic medicines. May be due to the pressure from big pharmaceutical companies. These companies offer a commission to doctors & hospitals for prescribing their medicines and hence very few doctors prescribe Generic medicines.

If you convert this idea into a business please remember one thing,

‘Even the poorest of the poor has got a right to survive’

So, please don’t implement this idea just as a profit making business but also as a service to the society & Nation.

Is Generic medicine safe?

This will be the first question your customers will have in their minds. But generic drugs are equally safe & effective as their branded counterparts. In U.S., a regulatory organization ‘U.S. food & Drug Administration’ (FDA) ensures the quality & performance of these medicines.There are other equivalent organizations available in other countries. You can have a look at an article here,

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/04/worried-about-generics/index.htm

Does every branded medicine have Generic substitute?

Not every drug but as and when patent for a particular drug expires, any other organization can start producing that medicine after getting permission from regulatory authority in respective country.

Why this idea will work?

Huge Price difference – There is a huge price difference between branded & their equivalent generic medicines. This difference is due to the following reasons,

Low research cost.
Low marketing cost.
Low or no premium cost. (Cost offered by some of the branded medicines which do not have any alternative)
No need to develop from scratch.
Less time to market.
No monopoly of any specific brand due to the competition.

Have a look at the following videos to understand the price difference.

http://www.satyamevjayate.in/issue04/videos/kBXwyclpr9A/

Table below will give you an idea about the difference between the prices of Branded & their equivalent Generic medicines.

Source: http://www.bcbsm.com/index.shtml

Home delivery – This is required as people are not aware of stores selling generic medicines. Even though home delivery will put financial burden on your business initially but it will help you to create your strong presence in this market. You can place a limit of minimum amount eligible for home delivery. You can have your own dedicated resources for home delivery or can have collaboration with Courier Company in your city.

Online order placement – Easy & convenient. This will be the soul of this business model.

Monthly subscriptions – Monthly subscriptions can be given to the users so that instead of selecting all the monthly medicines again and again user can create a monthly list & save it.

Discounts – Discounts can be offered for regular users.

Generic medicines not easily available – Very few doctors prescribe them & very few medical stores sell them as the profit margin is less.

How this Idea will work?

User Interface - We can have a comparison table for comparing branded & generic drugs on the home page wherein user can enter the names of branded medicines, their prices & compare them with their equivalent generic counterparts to see price difference. A comprehensive database with data about branded medicines, their Generic substitutes & Prices of the both will be required along with other information.

Once an order is placed, user can select Country, State, City & Area so that the order can be dispatched to respective distributor.
User can be asked for promotional sample products if any.
User can preview his/her order before placing it. Users can save/update/delete order.
User can place final order by paying online or you can also give an option of ‘Cash on Delivery’.
If user creates a profile with the site then user can see all previous orders placed or saved orders just like shopping carts on online shopping websites.

Order Processing

Once an order is placed by user, it will be stored in database.
Order will be forwarded to the distributor depending upon location criteria selected by the user.
Distributor will process the order & will update the order status in the centralized database.
If distributor doesn’t have a specific medicine, he/she will notify the centralized database.
That part of order will be forwarded to other distributor.
In such a situation order will be combined & then it will be dispatched to the user.

Delivery

Courier company/own delivery system will get notification that the order is ready to get dispatched.
Courier company will collect the medicines from distributor & will deliver them to the user.

Prescriptions:

Before going deep into the idea, you will have to tackle an issue of Prescriptions. We are well aware of the fact that medical stores can’t sell certain medicines without doctor’s prescription. This is issue can be tackled by using following options:

User can upload the scanned copy or clear photo of prescription. This photo can be reviewed by your company representative immediately and a six digit alpha numeric keyword will be provided for that user on his email or by sms. User can insert that keyword & then only the order will be processed.
Or before delivering an order your representative/delivery boy will scan (or take photograph) of the prescription. He will upload that photo to your centralized location. This photo will be reviewed immediately by the company representative. If everything is fine then delivery boy will deliver the medicines to the customer.

You can use other better ideas if you have any.

Earning – You can earn by charging service/delivery tax to the users & also commission from distributors. If you manage to do it on large amount you can even have tie-ups with Generic medicine manufacturers.

This is a bulk business. Profit margin is less but considerable profit could be earned depending upon the volume of medicines sold.

You will have one more option of advertisements on your website.

Costing –

One time cost:

Website building
Software license cost
Infrastructure cost
Legal cost etc.

Monthly cost:

Salaries
Advertisements/Marketing
Bills etc.

Site promotion – You can promote your business with the help of any or all of the following options,

Advertisements in print & electronic media.
Using Social network.
Promotion with the help of Doctors if possible.
Promotion in Government hospitals.
Promotion with the help of Medical stores if possible.
Several NGOs can help you promoting your business.
By running campaigns for spreading word about Generic medicines.

Statistics – You can provide impressive statistics on your website’s Home page. Some of the interesting numbers would be,

Total numbers of orders processed till date.
Average money saved per order.
Average time for processing an order
Total money saved for all the orders processed.

Admin Statistics – You can track user behavior on your website to understand your customer well & design/change your business strategies accordingly.

Documentation – You can provide useful documentation about Generic Medicines, their safety, cost benefit etc.

Feedback – Get feedback from users. You may get some useful information.

Mobile website –

We all know that mobile internet is the future. Number of mobile internet users is growing each year in world. It would be necessary to have a mobile website as it will be very convenient for users to order medicines online. In addition to mobile website we also need mobile apps like Android, Windows 8 & iPhone apps.

Warnings – Don’t forget to warn users for making sure that they are consuming these medicines with proper guidance from doctor or give a list of symptoms about the side effects of generic medicines if any.

There are plenty of other useful features that can be implemented. We have tried to cover the core business functionality. You can use your experience & creativity to make it a better business opportunity.

Let us know your view. You can write to us at internetstartupideas@gmail.com