A'bad-based pharmacy dispenses only the cheapest drug option

About 90% of its sales come from chronic segment therapies like diabetes and cardiac problems

While rising medicine prices could bring a frown to the faces of many, it could also present itself as an opportunity for others. An Ahmedabad-based start up Medkart Pharmacy has taken an innovative approach to doing the business of selling medicines.

Ankur Agarwal, an engineer and an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management- Lucknow, has opened his pharmacy in the heart of the city, which sells the cheapest available brand or medicine to the customer.

India is yet to take strong directional steps in it mandatory for doctors to prescribe only generic names or names of molecules or combinations in their prescriptions. Medkart has done just that; when a customer approaches them with a prescription that might contain any brand name, the chemist suggests the medicine which has the same composition, but is the cheapest version available in the market.

Agarwal clarifies eagerly that in doing so, Medkart does not compromise on quality. "We source only from WHO-GMP certified manufacturers, to ensure that quality standards are adhered to. However, even then there are huge differences in the prices of medicines of different brands, different manufacturers," he says.

He explains further that over 2,000 molecules are available in India for various ailments, which are available in over 9,000 combinations and there are 200,000 brands available in the market for these combinations. The scenario is quite the opposite globally. Agarwal claims that outside India around 400-500 contents are popular as the ones that go obsolete are promptly taken off the shelf, of which there are over 2,000 combinations available across 10,000 brands.

"The problem in India is that there is too much focus on brand marketing, too many companies and a lot of doctor level activities," Agarwal claims.

He started Medkart in September 2014 after a personal tete-a-tete with a medical crisis and high medicine prices pushed him to think on these lines. Medkart started with a seed-fund of Rs 25 lakh and it has broken even around four months back. It currently has only one store in Ahmedabad and is planning to add a few more in the coming months. The Ahmedabad store currently makes around Rs 25 lakh turnover a month, with 40-50 new clients every day. About 90 per cent of its sales come from chronic segment therapies like diabetes and cardiac problems.

It has consciously chosen not to go for over the top marketing as word of mouth is a more reliable and credible way to win customers, feels Agarwal. He adds that several doctors visit our stores after they hear about us from their patients and once they see the way we dispense medicines, they themselves go back and recommend us to their patients.