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Chemists Check Competition With BP

In an attempt to counter the threats posed by big pharma retail chains, chemist stores across the country have rolled up their sleeves and initiated a series of steps to match the offers promised by big chains.

The All-India Chemist And Druggist Association (AIOCD) is in talks with Dr Lal Path Labs, Dr Reddy's Labs and Thyrocare Pathology to offer diagnostic facilities at the traditional chemist stores in Delhi. The Delhi unit of AIOCD is being corporatised as Indraprastha Retail and Distributor Retail Ltd.

The association has also appointed E&Y and Accenture to help the chemist stores "migrate from traditional shops to professional stores." Clearly, the chemist stores are trying to match the value-added services of the bigger retail stores. Plans are afoot to provide AC storage facilities for its drugs, BP and routine check-up facilities, sugar-level tests, consultation and home delivery service etc.

The move is prompted by the coming of the big boys in pharma retail. Over the next four-five years, Ranbaxy-prompted Fortisworld plans to set up 1,000 stores. Dabur plans to set up 300-400 stores, Reliance Retail plans to set up 4,000 pharmacies and Medical Pharmacy another 500 stores. This is in addtion to the existing retail chains of Apollo Subiksha and Guardian.

Many of these retail chains have promised to provide a host of value-added medical services such as BP check up, diagnostic facilities, blood-testing, health-related consultancy, sugar-level check, home delivery, prescription reminder, membership facilities, NRI schems and tele medicine. To face such an onslaught, the association has pooled in resources through its members to fund their counter initiatives.

While the Maharashtra state chemist and druggist alliance Ltd. (AICDAL) has pooled in Rs 65 crore, its Kerala counterpart has contributed Rs 25 crore. Other states are also expected to follow suit.

There are around 5.5. lakh traditional retail stores across the country. However, most of these value-added facilities are likely to be offered by the bigger retail stores, usually based in metros with space of about 200 sq. feet. The association estimates that about 15-20% of these stores can afford the same facilities being promised by the big retail houses.

"Pharmacies so far have never faced any competition or external force.The steps are being taken to safeguard our members and shift our conventional age-old pharmacy stores to a professional method and offer value-added services," AIOCD president A N Mohan said ET.

(Ref : The Economic Times dated April 21, 2007)

400 Hospitals Log Onto Telemedicine

The concept of telemedicine, started about eight years ago in India on a pilot basis, has matured onto the next level. Major hospital groups are now looking at significantly expanding their centres not just in India but also in neighbouring countries.

There are currently an estimated 350-400 hospitals connected by telemedicine. On the ISRO network alone, there are 170, of which around 35 are speciality hospitals and the rest remote centres. The first telemedicine project in the country was a centre set up by the Apollo Hospitals group in the village of Aragonda in Andhra Pradesh in 1999.

Apollo Hospitals, which now has close to 150 centres in India, Bangladesh, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Kazakhistan, is targetting to have 500-700 locations in the next 18-24 months. "We are making investments in expanding our telemedicine network in three types of models - government partnership where we have already tied up with four states in India, with corporates as thier CSR initiatives and PPP model,’’ said Ashvani Srivastava, President - Strategic Initiatives, Apollo.

The telemedicine initiative of Manipal Hospitals is only about one and a half years old. It currently has 15 centres including centres in Mauritius and education links with South Africa. "We are in the process of consolidating links with ISRO. So far our telemedicine links have been over the ISDN network. So in the last three months, we have been aggressively promoting telemedicine," says Dr Nagendra Swamy, director, medical services, Manipal Hospitals.

Now, the hospital is looking at interlinking all Manipal group institutions and affiliated clinics as well as setting up more centres in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Mauritius. By the end of this year, the hospital would be adding 25 to 30 more remote centres, Dr Swamy says. "There still has to be more acceptance on part of the people. Unless that happens, telemedicine will not grow into a revenue generating model," he adds.

(Ref : The Economic Times dated April 27, 2007)

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