Moving drugs, pills and pharmacy to your doorstep

Online pharmacy caters to tier-II, tier-III cities to bring a range of drugs to patients with chronic health conditions
Online pharmacy marketplace Net meds.com is one of the few startups that has gone from offline to online and managed to make the most of it. The secret sauce of having more than 5 lakh users in their kitty - in just about a year - has been their focus on customers in tier-2 and tier3 cities with chronic health conditions.
Founded by Pradeep Dadha in June 2015, the startup managed to bag $50 million in funding from a clutch of investors, including US-based investment firm OrbiMed and MAPE Advisory.MAPE Advisory.
"We've had more than a 100 year experience in this business. Dadha & Co was one of the most trusted pharmacies till we merged with Sun Pharmaceuticals," says Pradeep Dadha, whose father S Mohanchand Dadha currently sits on the board of Sun Pharma.
Netmeds.com offers customers a range of more than 25,000 products everyday on their site, including OTC drugs and medical devices. "The value proposition we offer is that we cater to tier-2 and tier-3 cities and we are reaching pockets that have so far been out of the purview of brick and mortar stores. We use India Post and courier services like Blue Dart. Sometimes our own delivery boys for deliveries in and around Chennai. We are currently catering to more than 320 cities in India," says Dadha. Another selling point at Netmeds is the pricing. "Since we don't have the overhead costs of running a brick and mortar store, we are able to give good dis counts to our customers.Sourcing has always been a strong point given our experience in this industry," says Dadha.
With regard to possible regulatory hurdles, Netmeds says it has a pharmacist vetting each order just as they do in normal stores, before the order is approved. "We deliver drugs only on prescription. Say we did not have in stock, what your doctor has prescribed for you, we cannot give you the generic version of that drug unless your doctor's prescription specifically says so," says Dadha.
And to ward off any possible complications, Netmeds has also taken a policy decision to not supply any habit-forming drugs. "If you wanted a sleeping tablet and even if you had a prescription for it, we still won't accept the order," says Dadha.
Netmeds is also planning to expand the number of warehouses and improve its logistics. "We are trying to reduce on the time taken for delivery to 24 hours from the three days it now takes us," says Bruce Schwack, cofounder, Netmeds.
For its investors, it was the man behind the company. "We invested primarily because of Pradeep. We were impressed with his domain understanding of pharma space and technology initiatives over the last 10-15 years. He has a penchant for growth and a strong entrepreneurial hunger," says M Ramprasad, chairman and co-founder, MAPE Advisory.