The pharmacy industry in India is standing verge of a huge change. The pharma industry of 1.4 lakh crore is expected to grow exponentially in the upcoming years to US$100 billion. But the most untouched portion of the industry is going through a critical change as the big players like Amazon and Reliance Industry Limited (RIL) are going on head to head. That untouched part is the- Online Pharmacy industry.
The days are long gone where 'you can expect all your medical needs to be delivered at your doorsteps in a few clicks' is just an unreal thought only. All of your monthly needs are just a click away as you simply need to upload the prescriptions. The rest is taken care of by the online pharma company.
Reliance has acquired majority stakes of Vitalic Health Pvt. Ltd, an online pharmacy company for RS. 620 crore.
According to Isha Ambani, director of the Reliance Retail Ventures, this investment is "aligned with our commitment to provide digital access for everyone in India.".
Amazon already kick-started their campaign with 'Amazon Pharmacy' in Bengaluru. They already planned to spread out to other metropolitan cities. Amazon's rival, Walmart-owned Flipkart, is also giving close attention to the prospectus.
PharmaEasy, another player in the E-pharmacy market, has decided to buy out the entire stake of MedLife, a smaller contestant in the same field. The total evaluation of the PharmEasy-Medlife will stand at a staggering $1.2 billion.
If you don't know what is Online Pharmacy, It is very simple. You can receive your medicines simply by uploading your prescription. You can set the service every month where the refills will be done automatically. Starting masks, medical equipment to every kind of medicine- everything is available in the new 'Amazon's of medicines. Even you can book for a diagnostics checkup where the medical consultant will come to your room to collect your sample.
RIL's last venture in the Indian telecom sector, 'Jio' already disrupted the telecom industry back in 2016. This new 'Med-Jio' is looking like another big step to agitate the unscathed e-pharma world. Jio disturbed the market with the introduction of free 4G data. We can expect a similar model in this venture from the oil-to-retail giant.
In the coming weeks, we are expecting many changes and conglomeration of many smaller athletes in the market to tackle the 'NetMed' wave.
New giants are rising in the field that was nascent in this continent. The preliminary round of E-pharmacy has finished. The next stage is the mains where the winner will be declared. Who will be the champion to rule the emerging market? Will it be Reliance or Amazon? Only time will tell.
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