Subhojit Lahiri

CEO

The retail pharmacy market in India is entering a period of drastic change where the rise of healthcare awareness, digital disruption, and growing demand for convenient medical products are driving a big change. However, this rapid expansion presents the difficult task of maintaining retailer profitability while offering consumers genuine medicines at affordable prices in an environment involving scarce government support, razor-thin margins, and intense competition from both branded and generic drug sellers.

This environment is complex and innovative business models are required to bridge the gaps between the trading and retailing sides, build trust, and deliver real value to both retailers and end customers.

Pioneering in the Indian pharmacy sector, MEDX has emerged to directly tackle the market’s most pressing issues. The company has created an integrated B2B and B2C platform that gives retailers and consumers access to a wide range of authentic medicines and healthcare products at attractive prices. The company’s rapid expansion of its footprint across West Bengal and beyond is based on its approach to direct procurement, aggressive discounting, and technology-driven solutions.

“At MEDX, we are dedicated to making both quality and affordable healthcare available for everyone and with a great system of trust built among the communities we serve,” says Subhojit Lahiri, CEO, MEDX.

Unmatched Discounting Model & Retailer Profitability

The industry-leading discounting strategy that MEDX employs directly addresses the profitability crisis of pharmacy retailers. The company’s model is transformative given that branded medicines often have margins of 10 percent and generic competitors offer substantial price advantages in the market.

The company obtains medicines directly from the manufacturers and CNF (Carrying and Forwarding) agents and gets a discount of 30–33 percent on branded products. This allows it to offer retailers discounts of up to 35–36 percent, which is considerably more than what other retailers offer, which is typically 20–26 percent.

For instance, Pan D is a commonly prescribed branded medicine that is sold at ?160–170 per strip, and retailers make approximately 10 percent margin after discounts. MEDX procures the same product at a much higher discount, which enables retailers to sell at competitive prices and keep their profit margin healthy. This also rewards the retailers to join the company’s network and ensures that customers get lower prices without sacrificing quality.

In addition to medicines, the company is also discounting in other health products such as baby food, where it provides 10–15 percent discount to retailers as opposed to 8–10 percent which is market standard. It even trades a part of its own margin in order to give its partners the advantage to compete successfully and win in a difficult market.

Expansive Product Portfolio & Market Penetration

MEDX is unique in its product breadth and depth and its market reach. The company’s inventory is around 30,000 SKUs of medicines, healthcare products, and nutritional supplements. This comprehensive portfolio makes sure that urban and rural customers are able to access the medicines and products they need, when they need them.

The company has more than 200 B2B partner shops and over 800 B2C retail outlets spread across West Bengal. It employs a dual channel approach, which enables it to serve a wide range of customers including independent pharmacies that want to negotiate better procurement terms, to end users who want genuine, affordable medicines.

With a current turnover of ?150 crore, its rapid growth is testimony to the fact that it has been able to scale up operations while maintaining quality and reliability.

Apart from medicines, the company’s distribution of discounted baby food and other essentials makes it a one stop destination for healthcare needs. The company’s plans to expand further are to reach more and more communities with affordable healthcare solutions.

Customer-Centric Innovation & Technology Integration

By using technology and customer-focused initiatives, MEDX redefines the pharmacy experience. Proprietary software developed by the company is used to track real-time inventory and medicine aging management and automate stock redistribution. The system moves a product that is about to expire at one outlet to another with higher demand so as to avoid wastage and maintain continuous supply.

The MEDX Money card, that is, a digital wallet to store customer discounts, is a unique innovation. On the purchases made by customers, the savings are credited directly to their MEDX card which can be encashed by them at any MEDX outlet by way of a secure OTP verification process. The flexibility, transparency and immediate access to savings this system provides makes it appealing to younger, tech-savvy customers.

The mobile app of the company further adds to the customer experience by providing 24/7 access to on call doctors, ambulance booking (including specialized cardiac ambulances) and a unique blood donation network. The app’s blood donation feature finds donors for recipients in emergencies using a growing database of over 1,200 registered donors that is set to expand nationwide.

Social Responsibility & Community Engagement

Social impact is a defining part of the company’s business philosophy and a commitment to it. Child Age is one of the NGOs that the company partners with actively and offers free MEDX Child Age cards to extremely poor families, which offer free medicines worth ?1,000 a month. This initiative directly meets the healthcare needs of the most vulnerable whereas without this initiative, the gap would be left unfilled because of lack of government support.

In addition, the company offers specialized programs for police families, which already have over 3,000 beneficiaries who receive medicines at a high discount and even free delivery, regardless of the size of order or destination.

CSR initiatives of the firm also go to rural healthcare through the “Rapid Clinic” model, where the pre hospitalization care, general checkups and minor surgeries are provided at economical rates. It provides essential healthcare services that are accessible and affordable in remote areas to reduce the burden on the hospitals and enhance the health outcomes of underserved populations.

These social initiatives not only show the company’s social commitment but also build strong trust and loyalty in the communities it serves. Its philosophy is based on the idea that affordable quality healthcare is a human right, not a privilege.

Quality Assurance, Trust, & Personalized Service

At the core of the company’s operations are trust and authenticity. All medicines procured by the company are genuine because of its direct procurement model and to address the widespread concern of counterfeit drugs in Indian market. The company has strong relationships with manufacturers and CNF agents that guarantee quality and traceability of each product it sells.

With a professional culture and customer confidence, its leadership team, consisting of engineers and managers from the best of schools, helps the company to succeed. The company has a diverse workforce comprising retired army and government officials who are the backbone of its robust administrative framework.

Another hallmark of the MEDX experience is personalized service. The company has a database of over 100,000 customers and can communicate with each customer in a more tailored way as well as send them proactive reminders of prescriptions. Its system automatically alerts staff when a chronic patient’s refill is due to maintaining continuity of care. The staff directly reach out to a customer if they do not order a refill, an attentiveness rarely seen in the industry.

The first indication of the company’s commitment to holistic healthcare is its investment in diagnostic centers with services like CT scans and MRI, as well as plans to add dialysis facilities. These centers serve to offer customers with a close proximity to important diagnostic services, emphasizing its status as a complete healthcare provider.

MEDX’s vision of affordable, genuine, accessible healthcare is bound to make it the industry leader in addressing the challenges and opportunities of future healthcare needs in India.