Scientific rambling
Do you usually buy medicine at the pharmacy or online?
Recently, such a scene occurred in a pharmacy in Chaoyang District, Beijing, a woman wanted to buy a box of ** cold oral liquid, and the pharmacy staff recommended one to her, priced at 168 yuan, and also recommended another drug to be used together, which cost a total of 226.
After the woman paid, she walked out of the pharmacy and searched for ** with her mobile phone at the door and found that the price of this 168 drug on the online drug sales platform was 59 yuan, and the physical store was 109 yuan more expensive.
So the woman returned to the pharmacy theory, and finally the dispute ended with a return and refund.
In fact, for us ordinary people, there are only three ways to obtain drugs:Hospitals, retail pharmacies, and Internet pharmacies of all sizesThe reason why the same medicine is very different is that there are several reasons.
First of all,Manufacturers are different
Although the name of the drug is called this, their manufacturers will be different, and different manufacturers will come out, whether it is the formula or the production process, which will directly affect the pricing of the drug.
Secondly,Specifications are different
Take the common roxithromycin dispersible tablets as an example, you will find that it has a box of 6 tablets, a box of 10 tablets, and a box of 12 tablets, and different specifications of medicine, the dosage is not the same, so it must be different.
Of course, in addition to these two underlying reasons, there are two key factors.
It's the same medicine, why are pharmacies so expensive compared to the Internet?
In September 2023, Mr. Yang, a citizen, needed to take febuxostat tablets for a long time due to gout, and it had been purchased in physical pharmacies before, and each box** was 55 yuan.
Then this time he found on the online drug sales platform that the price of the same medicine is only 33 yuan 8, even if you add delivery fees and packaging fees, the price is much cheaper than that of physical pharmacies, and you can receive it in half an hour.
In this regard, the manager of a chain pharmacy said that the main reason for this situation isOperating costs are differentIn order to attract more consumers, physical pharmacies will generally choose to be in the most advanced area, and they also need to recruit staff with drug knowledge, and the store rent and labor costs will be relatively high. However, selling drugs online does not require excessive costs, only the normal operation of the store is required, and sometimes one person can complete multiple tasks.
In addition, the competition on the online platform is serious, and many stores are selling the same, in order to attract customers, many stores will adopt various preferential methods, such as full reduction, rebates, newcomer discounts, etc., under this marketing model, ** will also be depressed.
Of course, in addition to these reasons, issues such as the authenticity and shelf life of drugs are also key, and we cannot rule out the possibility of high imitation on the online platform, and for drugs that are about to expire, ** will naturally be much lower.
But then again, there isn't much traffic in physical pharmacies now, so why are stores still opening one after another?
Have you noticed that roadside pharmacies are opening more and more, but the traffic seems to be like that.
But making money is inevitable, otherwise it will not be opened one after another, according to the data of the State Food and Drug Administration, as of September 2019, the number of pharmacies in China has reached 58650,000.
Now most pharmacies have appliedQualifications for medical insurance designation, so many people take their medical insurance cards to go to pharmacies to brush masks and daily necessities, and what you think is "no money" is actually increasing revenue for pharmacies.
The most important thing is that the variety of health care products in the pharmacy is the main source of profiteering, modern people pay attention to health, and there is a folk saying that "10 robbers are not as good as one selling medicine".
The most important thing is that the profit of pharmacies is much higher than you think, in 2015, ** canceled the pricing of most drugs**, which is why, the same drug, different pharmacies have different prices, then the profits generated can be imagined.
Moreover, the threshold for opening a pharmacy is much easier than opening a clinic, as long as the operator has the relevant certificates and documents reviewed by the prescribed department, it can operate normally.
In addition, although pharmacies also have e-commerce channels, some drugs cannot be purchased online and can only be purchased in hospitals or offline pharmacies, so e-commerce is not enough to threaten the survival of pharmacies.