In just a few hundred meters of the street, there are seven or eight pharmacies. According to statistics, by the end of 2022, the number of retail pharmacies in China has reached 6230,000, compared to 440,000 in 2012, showing a significant growth trend, an increase of almost 50% in ten years. Behind this surge, it is mainly due to the implementation of the reform of separating medicine from medicine in China.
In the past, it was the norm for patients to buy medicines in hospitals, and doctors' recommendations were almost the only basis for decision-making. However, this model can easily lead to the problem of "medicine for medicine", and doctors may over-prescribe drugs because of the dependence on drug sales revenue, which not only leads to unreasonable drug use for patients, but also may breed corruption and increase the financial burden of patients. Therefore, the separation of medicine is an urgent problem to be solved on a global scale.
In order to break the economic chain between "medical care" and "medicine", China has begun to explore relevant reforms since 1997 and has continuously issued relevant policy documents. In 2016, the "13th Five-Year Plan" clearly proposed to promote the separation of medicine, and the pace of reform has accelerated significantly since then. With the advancement of the policy, more and more drugs are transferred from hospitals to pharmacies, and patients can buy the drugs they need directly at pharmacies after obtaining a diagnosis certificate and prescription. This change has given new life to pharmacies.
The steady demand for pharmaceuticals as a necessity in daily life has made pharmacies a relatively easy business form. Similar to supermarkets, pharmacies mainly sell commonly used medicines, health products, etc., which have a long shelf life and are easy to store. In addition, the profit margins of pharmaceuticals are relatively large, usually between 10% and 40%, while the margins of nutraceuticals are even higher. Compared with other stores, the operating costs of pharmacies mainly include rent and employee salaries, so they have an advantage in the market competition.
In recent years, the number of pharmacies nationwide has been increasing. Especially during the epidemic, when many physical stores faced difficulties, the total number of pharmacies in China still maintained positive growth. However, in the long run, the market automatically regulates the number of pharmacies. When there are too many pharmacies and there is an oversupply, the profitability of opening pharmacies will decrease, which will naturally lead to a decrease in the number of pharmacies.
However, the rapid expansion of pharmacies has also brought with it its own set of problems. Some consumers have reported that they have encountered over-marketing when purchasing medicines in certain pharmacies. For example, when they have only a mild headache, the salesperson strongly recommends buying multiple medications. Other consumers said that when buying cold medicine for their children, the clerk recommended ** medicine after learning that they could use the medical insurance card. These phenomena have raised public concerns about the ethical level of pharmacies.
In response to these problems, we call on pharmacies to be patient-centered and provide reasonable drug advice and services. As an important channel for patients to obtain medicines, pharmacies are the last guarantee for patients' health. At the same time, patients should also improve their drug knowledge and learn to distinguish the advantages and disadvantages of different drugs and their cost-effectiveness. When buying medicines, you can refer to the advice and drug recommendations of different people, shop around and compare with online** to avoid unnecessary losses.