Start-ups collaborate with chemists, shake up offline pharma business

Some are managing supply-chain backend for retail pharmacies, right from stockist to chemist, others are offering telemedicine kiosks at chemist outlets, and digitising pharmacies

Bulk of the medicine sales in the $22-24 billion domestic pharma market happens through offline retail chemists. With the entry of online pharmacies, this space has started to witness a shake-up.

Sample this: Dawaa Dost, a Rajasthan based digital health start-up, generates medicine orders from ‘kirana’ stores and women self-help groups (SHGs) that operate in villages, and then service these orders through its affiliated network of pharmacies. Biddano, another health-tech start-up, has a platform that acts as an aggregator for neighbourhood chemist shops. Biddano also manages the supply-chain backend for retail pharmacies, right from the stockist direct to the chemist.