The Pharma industry is among the biggest industries in India. It also holds a wonderful 4th position in the world in terms of volume. Therefore, Business-to-Business (B2B) pharmacy i.e., wholesale pharmacy proved to be a profitable business. Pharma experts have an excellent opportunity to grow with this business.

However, starting a wholesale pharmacy business in India has certain prerequisites. In this post, we have covered everything starting from how you can start your pharmacy business to all the legal requirements and eligibility for starting a business as a seller of medicine.

Types of Pharmacy Businesses 

Before you jump on the best way to start your own pharmacy business in India, you have to know the types of pharmacy businesses that you can begin here. When you have reached a milestone as a retailer, you can invest your resources into wholesale businesses which are of these types:

  • Standalone Pharmacy: Chemist or a general medical store is the name of this sort of business. You can extend your existing profile and manage a wide variety of medicines.
  • Hospital Pharmacy: Team up with a medical institution or a hospital to reach out, sell, and promote medicines.
  • Chain Pharmacy: Build your own chains in various locations, which could be around the country.
  • Township Pharmacy: This is identified as a particular housing society of town where you have a decent reputation.
  • Internet Pharmacy: Turn to digitalization and work with merchants, customers, and wholesalers on the web. This business is typically online.
  • Specialist Pharmacy: Wholesale businesses like dermatology, oncology, homeopathic, ayurvedic, and many more.
  • Animal Pharmacy/Veterinary Pharmacy: Deals in animal medicines and products.

Types of Customers for Wholesale Pharmacy Business

There are three different types of customers a pharmacy wholesale business serves:

  • Clinical medical stores
    • A clinical medical store is something that can be set up under a doctor’s clinic or a huge corporate hospital. In both scenarios, it is called a private organization. The achievement of it relies purely upon the success of the hospital (or prominence of the doctor).
  • Standalone medical stores
    • This sort of customer runs the business under single ownership or some affiliation. Its success of it relies upon various aspects like the market competition, the area of the medical store, and its reputation.
  • Chain medical store
    • A chain medical store is another establishment of a huge medical organization. As it carries the authenticity of the brand, it is relatively easy to make a profit. However, competitiveness and location truly play a significant role.

Legal Procedure

According to the rules, anybody who is graduated in pharmacy and gets experience of at least one year in the field can apply for the wholesale pharma business.

CDSCO is the controlling authority that released the permit. GST registration is an additional requirement to begin the business.

The following documents are required to get started:

  • Application form filled in the recommended format
  • Covering letter of the candidate
  • Challan of the fee deposited
  • Declaration plan
  • Site plan and key plan of the business premises
  • Proof of ownership of the premises
  • Proof of constitution of the business is dependent on its type, i.e., incorporation certificate, undertaking letter, partnership deed, and many more.
  • Proof of appointment of an enlisted pharmacist who will be working in the organization full-time

Keep in mind that CDSCO keeps a close watch on every wholesale medical store business. It helps in maintaining the standards of sale, capacity, and display of medicines.

Successful Wholesale Business Plan

  • Craft a successful Business Plan.
  • Get a rented or owned premise/shop.
  • Prepare a rent agreement (In case of rented premise).
  • Contact the best pharmaceutical companies in India for the Stockiest ship, Wholesale, or potentially Distributorship.
  • Seal all deals with a Pharmaceutical Company.
  • Get a wholesale medicine license from Goods and Service Tax Registration. 
  • Purchase other necessary items like Computer, Fridge, Furniture, and so forth.
  • Medicine Inspector will personally analyze your premises. If they find out the conditions of the premises are well-maintained, then they will release your medicine license.
  • After some time, you will get your medicine permit copy and number.
  • Start buying, stocking, and invoicing medicines and medicines to retailers and medical stores.

Investment/Money/Fund/Amount needed for pharma distribution business:

Fixed Assets:

  • Documentation and License: Costs around 25000-30000 INR
  • Furniture: Approximately 20000 INR
  • Refrigerator: 5000 to 10000 INR

Liquid Assets:

  • Rent of premises: Varies depending on the location
  • Medicine and Medicines: Depends on your buy

Starting a pharma distribution business with large brand costs around 3 to 5 lakhs, and for a small pharmaceutical organization, it cost nearly 1 to 2 lakh investment.

To whom should you sell medicines?

A wholesale medicine licensed firm can’t sell medicines except if such medicine is bought under a cash or credit memo from an appropriately authorized dealer or a duly licensed manufacturer.

A wholesale medicine licensed firm can sell medicines just to an individual having a necessary license to sell stock or show available to be purchased, or distributed the medicine. You cannot sell any medicine to an individual who does not hold the necessary license to exhibit for the sale or distribution of the medicine.

You can’t sell medicines directly to the patients against the medicine order of enlisted medical practitioners.

Other than requisite license firms, a wholesale medicine licensed firm can offer the following even if they don’t have a medicine-related license:

  • An officer or authority buying for Government, or
  • A hospital, educational, medical, or research institution or a registered medical specialist for the purpose to supply to his patients, or
  • A manufacturer of confectionery biscuits, beverages, and other non-medicinal products, where such medications are needed for processing these products.

Important factors for wholesale pharma companies

Team up with the local clinics, hospitals, and pharmacists and start supplying to them. Being in the healthcare industry, the authorities are strict about storage as well. Hence, ensure that you have legitimate and hygienic storage rooms on your premises. Store the medicines according to the standards to stay away from complications. Keep the premises free of bugs, messy materials, and waste. Cooling appliances like air conditioners and refrigerators are also additionally viewed as fundamental to storing medicines. You will, likewise, have to hire working staff besides the medicine specialist. And after your business is running successfully and you want to expand your business further, you may want to incorporate the setting-up of an online wholesale pharmacy platform.

What is an online wholesale pharmacy marketplace and what are its benefits?

It is a platform where buyers and sellers make contacts with the help of an online place. Here, the buyer and seller both are business owners.

The wholesale market across the world in general and in India, in particular, is rapidly adopting the online B2B marketplace. Taking your traditional business to an online marketplace like the one offered by EMed HealthTech assures you many benefits. We have listed some of them below.

Easy Set-up:

In addition to the growth and adoption of the internet in India, one of the key reasons behind the rapid rise of online marketplaces is the easy setup and transition it offers. By contacting a pharma app development company, one can start a marketplace for their business very easily.

Rapid Expansion:

The traditional brick-and-mortar stores have many constraints when it comes to business expansion because it is highly tied to offline reach. But, in the case of online marketplaces, there is no such hindrance as it enables the business owners to scale their business rapidly. One can meet their potential clients online and deliver the goods without much hassle.

Reduced Paperwork:

In the B2B model, doing paperwork is cumbersome because of the sheer number of products that are sold. The facility of digitized records provided by online marketplaces not only reduces paperwork but also makes finding a particular bill or record easy. It is always just a click away. It also saves you lots of bucks by reducing manual work and human efforts.

Check out How Indian E-pharmacies Operate and What are the Rules and Regulations Governing Them? 

Conclusion

Pharmaceutical Wholesale and Distributorship is a significant part of the pharmaceutical distribution channel. You can begin it by taking a wholesale medicine license and GST number.

Do in-depth research and then proceed with wholesale business. You need to have a proficient network of distributors and medical experts to gain more profit.

How to get the demo of our platform?

EMed HealthTech offers comprehensive business solutions for the pharma wholesale sector. If you want to build your eCommerce marketplace or want to get a demo of our services, Click here!

And our dedicated team of Digital marketing executives will also guide you regarding the marketing of your online marketplace as well.

Call +91 63676 58233 / +91 94086 38536

Mail us at info@emedstore.in