The new report, 'Pharmacy Retail Market in India', elaborates the changing role of pharmacy outlets and the gradual progression it is seeing towards building an organized format. The market is sustainable and is projected towards significant growth due to the already existing varied disease profile as well as the emerging new diseases and the growing population size being affected by such diseases.
The pharmacy sector forms the second largest share in the Indian healthcare sector. The sector sources its products through institutional and non institutional sales. The institutional sales is the sale of pharmaceuticals to hospitals, nursing homes and other such health institutions that purchase bulk drugs at discounted prices that results in partial decline in profit margin of manufacturers. Whereas, non institutional sales takes place through retail stores that happen to be the only form of sales channel that reaches directly to consumers and is a major source of revenue earning for the sector.
The pharmacy sector in India is highly regulated yet the sector suffers from circulation of sub standard and counterfeit drugs which hampers the retail segment of the business. Measures are being taken by the pharmacy regulatory bodies of the country to control the menace as it hampers the revenue earning drastically. The government is also taking major initiatives to provide medicines at subsidized rates as well as engage in tele consultation services and distribution of medicines in the rural belt.
The pharmacy retail industry in India is operates majorly in the unorganized format and is currently having approximately 12 major players operating in organized format. However, most organized players are operative regionally and are far from having a pan India presence. A variety of value added services are being incorporated by the organized players to attract a larger market share and initiatives are being taken to engage customers in brand loyalty.
To sum up, the pharmacy retail is a stable market that has strong growth potential even in the future years.
