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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) |
