For a long time, the hospital market has been the main sales position of prescription drugs. After the promotion of centralized procurement policy, the unsuccessful varieties almost lost the sales market of major public hospitals in China. In order to regain market share in the past, these varieties have been sold in retail markets outside hospitals. At the same time, more and more pharmaceutical companies began to cultivate their own retail prescription teams and lay out retail channels in advance. The pharmacy market, once regarded as a "chicken rib" by some prescription drug companies, has now received unprecedented attention.
Pharmaceutical factory welfare retail department
Centralized procurement has accelerated the substitution of domestic generic drugs for original research drugs with expired patents to some extent. In the past, in the hospital market, the original drugs with expired patents not only dominated, but also enjoyed the advantage of high brand premium. Therefore, before the start of centralized procurement, most expired original pharmaceutical companies will not make great efforts to lay out the off-campus retail market. Nowadays, the original drug with expired patent is actively "moving closer" to the retail market.
Take the first batch of lipid-lowering drug "Rosuvastatin Calcium" as an example. AstraZeneca, as an original research and production enterprise, was unsuccessful in the "4+7" pilot cities or alliance areas. After missing most of the national public hospital market, the original research manufacturer chose to force the retail market. According to CMH data of Zhongkang, in the first quarter of this year, the sales of rosuvastatin calcium from AstraZeneca in the pharmacy market reached 46,543.8 billion yuan, a substantial increase of nearly 70% compared with the same period last year.
"Take the varieties involved in the previous two batches of centralized procurement as an example. Before we sold these varieties, the gross profit was almost zero or negative. After centralized procurement, there have been two major changes: First, the winning bidder actively communicated with us and was willing to give us some distribution fees. It may be three or five points lower, but it is better than nothing; Second, the unsuccessful varieties also come to our retail enterprises for cooperation. In the past, it was difficult for us to cooperate with them. " At the current Xipu meeting, Xie Zilong, the chairman of ordinary people, revealed.
He Gan, general manager of People's Prescription Drug Purchasing Center, said at this Xipu meeting that the opportunity brought by centralized procurement to the pharmacy industry is that prescription outflow is expected to land. "First of all, the price of drugs has dropped sharply, and hospital pharmacies have changed from profit departments to cost departments. The hospital gradually changed its attitude towards prescription outflow, giving retail pharmacies the opportunity to undertake it; Second, prescription manufacturers will speed up cooperation with pharmacies, unqualified product manufacturers will take the initiative to deepen cooperation with retail pharmacies, and the resources of production enterprises will also tilt to pharmacies, which will be conducive to the development of large chain pharmacies. "
Recently, Yinxintang said in an investor survey: Generally speaking, although the gross profit margin of the varieties purchased centrally is very low, it has brought new traffic growth opportunities for stores, and at the same time, through the cooperation of some varieties, it has also obtained more product cooperation opportunities, which has driven new sales and gross profit through other products.
Can pharmacies bring increments?
In the process of pharmaceutical companies expanding the retail market, many pharmacies are also throwing "hydrangeas". At this Xipu meeting, the listed chain pharmacies, including ordinary people (603883. Tang Yixin (002727. SZ) and Yifeng Pharmacy (603939. SH), published prescription drug management strategy.
For example, Chen Junjie, vice president of Yifeng Co., Ltd. said at this Xipu meeting that the company will expand prescription drug management from the following aspects: First, improve the company's management ability and professional service ability, and undertake prescription outflow; Second, in-depth cooperation with pharmaceutical companies to undertake prescription outflow; The third is to build a self-built Internet hospital platform to fully undertake prescription sources and terminals.
Some pharmacy people made a request on the spot that prescription drug companies need to provide reasonable market fees to pharmacies if they want to enter the market.
However, can the sales market of pharmacies bring real market increment to prescription drug enterprises?
In the first batch of centralized procurement for regional expansion of the alliance, Polivi of Sanofi was shortlisted through price reduction. Despite being shortlisted for centralized procurement, the sales scale of Polivi in the hospital market is still shrinking. In the first quarter of this year, polivy also carried out simultaneous price reduction in retail pharmacies, aiming at exchanging price for quantity, but the effect remains to be seen. According to CMH data of Zhongkang, the sales of Polaroid in pharmacies in the first quarter of this year was 270 million yuan, a decrease of 654.38+0.2 billion yuan compared with the same period last year.
For pharmaceutical companies, compared with hospitals, the distribution of off-campus retail market is relatively scattered, and the problem of weak pharmacy service ability of pharmacies has restricted the process of pharmaceutical companies' layout of retail market to some extent.
For example, in recent years, many chain pharmacies are laying out DTP pharmacies (pharmacies that directly provide more valuable professional services to patients). Unlike traditional retail pharmacies, which mainly sell OTC drugs (over-the-counter drugs), DTP pharmacies mainly sell high-margin professional drugs, new special drugs and self-funded drugs. , and equipped with licensed pharmacists to provide professional guidance and services, is an advanced model of retail pharmacies.
However, the number of DTP pharmacies that really meet the standard is not much, less than 200. Bird, vice president of Qingdao Baiyang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., said that many DTP pharmacies are not standardized in medication and health guidance, medication follow-up records, content and process of drug treatment management, etc. The knowledge sources of pharmacy service personnel are relatively single, and they all have basic concepts. Confused.
In the process of prescription drugs forcing the retail market, pharmacies can enjoy short-term policy dividends, but in the long run, centralized procurement will still accelerate the fission within the pharmacy industry.
"I think that after the normalization of centralized procurement, the retail industry tends to be more concentrated, because pharmacies with large enough volume have certain bargaining power with upstream prescription drug companies, and it is difficult for ordinary small and medium-sized pharmacies to get medium and high gross profit of prescription drugs. Therefore, in this context, centralized procurement has accelerated the centralized development trend of the retail industry. " Gao Yi, chairman of Yifeng Pharmacy, said at this Xipu meeting.