Chinese pharmacies preparing for online sales of pharamceuticals
HANGZHOU, China, — China Jo-Jo Drugstores, a leading China-based retail and wholesale distributor of pharmaceutical and health care products through its own online and retail pharmacies, announced that it has entered into a service agreement with Alibaba Health Information Technology to utilize the electronic prescription platform in preparing for the upcoming authorization from the China Food and Drug Administration on the online sales of prescription drugs in China.
Through Alibaba Health's recently launched mobile app, Alijk, patients are able to upload and send photocopies of doctor's prescriptions to nearby pharmacies so as to check the availability of medicines, compare the prices and eventually make the payments. Those qualified pharmacies partnering with Alibaba Health, such as China Jo-Jo, can then fill the orders via in-store purchase or home delivery service.
"We are very excited to team up with Alibaba Health to build a new future for ecommerce of pharmaceutical products. Besides assembling a dedicated team to work with Alibaba Health, we have also been actively focusing on procuring more products and building inventories, as well as recruiting qualified physicians and licensed pharmacists," stated Li Qi, China Jo-Jo secretary and director. "As more and more sales of prescription drugs will be shifted from hospitals to both online and offline drugstores, all of these new initiatives are aim to capture new businesses."
According to industry statistics, the annual Chinese pharmaceutical sales exceeds one trillion RMB (or $160 billion USD), and 80% of that are from sales of prescription drugs. Until now, the vast majority of prescription drugs are controlled by state-owned hospitals that rely on pharmaceutical sales for profits. With little or no competition, prescription drugs sold by these hospitals are overpriced, and doctors tend to over prescribe. Chinese government, to reform its rigid health care system, is therefore adopting a zero percent drug markup policy in hospitals and allowing online sales of prescription medicine. The official policies for online sales of prescription drugs is expected to be released in 2015.