Three new challenges behind the DTP pharmacy blowout!

With the popularity of the out-of-hospital market and the continued attention of new specialty drugs such as oncology, the DTP pharmacy market has attracted more and more industrial enterprises to deploy, and many industrial enterprises have also set up dedicated DTP teams.

Challenge 1 Medical Insurance Payment Qualification

It is important to obtain medical insurance access qualifications!

The first challenge in the development of DTP pharmacies comes from medical insurance payment.

"License" greatly contributes to performance improvement

The medical insurance payment of special drug pharmacies is different from the medical insurance payment of ordinary pharmacies, and a separate "Special Drug Service Agreement" needs to be signed with the local medical insurance agency.

Is there a "special drug and medical insurance service agreement" as a "license".

Take Hunan Dajiaweikang, a well-known DTP chain company as an example, 14 of its 19 DTP pharmacies have obtained this "license".

There are less than 500 "licensed" DTP pharmacies nationwide

However, the medical insurance policy of my country's specialty drug pharmacies is in the process of continuous development and improvement.

Judging from the current market, there are still a few pharmacies that have obtained the qualifications for reimbursement for special medicines.

And in the specific implementation, many cities will limit the number of local pharmacies that can obtain an overall reimbursement agreement to 3~5, even if the average is calculated according to the highest 5, based on the data of 2018 and 2019, there are about 1500 in the country.

Whether there is a "license" or not, the medical insurance access is arranged in advance

For specialty drug pharmacies that have not obtained the qualifications for overall planning and reimbursement, especially those special drug pharmacies that have not entered the category of 3 to 5 in the same city, operation will face great challenges.

In the long run, with the gradual improvement of my country's specialty drug pharmacies' medical insurance policies, specialty drug pharmacies must compete with professional service capabilities.

Challenge 2 The relationship with the hospital is subtle

DTP VS Hospital: What is the key value?

DTP has a natural advantage before and after the hospitalization

From the perspective of DTP pharmacies' variety suppliers, the main positioning of DTP pharmacies was to serve the sales of drugs that have not yet entered the hospital during the empty window period after the drug is listed.

From the perspective of DTP pharmacies, it is a natural market with advantages before entering the hospital and after taking the quantity.

How does DTP compete with the hospital before taking the quantity after entering the hospital?

For a specific variety, although the market share that DTP pharmacy can get (100% before entering the hospital) will drop significantly after entering the hospital, the market volume of the specific variety will significantly expand after entering the hospital.

At this stage, under the premise that patients under the "dual channel" policy have the same reimbursement policies for hospitals and medical insurance contracted specialty pharmacies, whether patients choose to buy medicines in the hospital or DTP pharmacies depends mainly on whether the DTP pharmacies can provide sufficient quality service.

Although doctors play a decisive role in the selection of patient prescriptions, it is difficult for doctors to have time to provide patients with meticulous and reasonable medication services after the prescription is determined.
If DTP pharmacies can establish a complete service system in rational drug use, clinical support and special drug monitoring, it will become a key starting point for attracting patients to choose DTP pharmacies to purchase drugs.

In addition, cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, social welfare organizations, commercial insurance, etc.
to carry out charitable drug donation projects is also a key value for DTP pharmacies to separate from hospitals.
If patients are reimbursed by medical insurance, they can obtain further benefits through charity projects or commercial insurance.
With favorable prices, patients will have great motivation to choose DTP pharmacies.

Challenge 3 How to obtain high-quality varieties?

Under the Matthew effect, small and medium DTP countermeasures?

At present, the specialty medicine market is basically a seller's market, and upstream industrial enterprises with varieties have greater decision-making power.
Correspondingly, another major challenge for DTP pharmacy operations is how to attract manufacturers to cooperate to obtain more high-quality varieties.

For manufacturers, out of business management cost efficiency considerations, product authorization mostly adopts "one city, two stores".
In this case, DTP pharmacies (compared with pharmacies without reimbursement qualifications) that have obtained medical insurance overall reimbursement qualifications are more attractive to manufacturers, and further form the "Matthew effect" of DTP pharmacies.

However, the source of this "Matthew effect" may be even more advanced.
The players in my country's DTP pharmacies are mainly commercial companies (such as Guokong, China Resources, Shanghai Pharmaceutical, etc.
), chain pharmacy companies (people, Yifeng, etc.
) and technology companies (Zero Krypton, Sipai, etc.
).
The leading enterprises of commercial enterprises and the DTP pharmacies of the leading enterprises of chain pharmacies, due to extensive cooperation with manufacturers, have obvious advantages in attracting varieties, and their origin naturally comes with the "Matthew effect".

How to attract the support of non-head commercial enterprises (typically such as Dajia Weikang, etc.
), non-head chain pharmacies (typically Nanjing Runtian), technology companies and more enterprises with relatively weak resource background attributes is currently facing Greater challenge.
In summary, there are mainly the following coping strategies:

[Strategy 1]

Stagger the competition, close to the hospital

First of all, it staggers the competition with the leading companies in geographic location, and chooses locations close to the hospital to open stores when conditions permit.

A typical example is the layout of Dajia Weikang in Changsha.
Surrounded by ordinary people and Yifeng two chain giants, Dajia Weikang still has 4 DTP pharmacies.
Take its Wuyi Road branch as an example.
The location is very good.
It is surrounded by Changsha Eighth Hospital, Hunan Provincial People's Hospital, Central South University Xiangya Second Hospital and many other hospitals.
In 2019, the single store revenue of Wuyi Road branch was as high as 255 million yuan.
.
Correspondingly, Dajiaweikang is attractive enough for specialty drug manufacturers in the Changsha market, and the variety negotiations with manufacturers can also be extended to help Dajiaweikang's DTP pharmacy stores in other prefectures and cities in Hunan Province.

Although the Sipai Pharmacy under the technology enterprise Sipai Group entered the DTP pharmacy market late, its strategy is to focus on opening stores near the core hospitals.
The stores are located in places with an average distance of less than 200 meters from the core hospitals and have a stable source of patients , The attraction to industrial enterprises is greater, and the ability to negotiate varieties is stronger.

[Strategy 2]

Identify the niche market and form a local advantage

Although the head companies as a whole are very strong and are very attractive to manufacturers, they may not be able to wrestle with "ground snakes" in specific cities.

Typical examples are Liuzhou Medicine in Guangxi, Dajia Weikang in Hunan Province, and Heping Pharmacy in Chongqing.
If the dimensions of competition are more closely drawn, the 300 prefecture-level cities across the country may form a local advantage of the prefecture-level of DTP pharmacy companies and become an important bargaining chip for negotiations with manufacturers.

[Strategy 3]

Find your own unique advantages

One inch long and one inch strong, one inch short and one inch insurance, how small and medium DTP pharmacy companies find their own unique advantages is also very important.

For example, technology companies can take advantage of their easier access to capital market financing to expand rapidly, and use their own technological advantages to build a more personalized patient service system.
Other companies, such as Nanjing Runtian, have expanded night services by cooperating with the local postal network to build smart pharmacies, turning their stores into front-end warehouses, and forming synergy with various postal outlets in Nanjing.
Patients place orders at the postal outlets, and express delivery from The smart pharmacy picks up the medicine and delivers it to home.
With its unique position in the Nanjing market and its innovative model, Nanjing Runtian has also attracted the active cooperation of many industrial enterprises.

Conclusion

my country's DTP market is still in the early stage of development.
The market is full of opportunities and many challenges.
Medical insurance access, professional services, and positioning itself for industrial enterprises will become the key for DTP pharmacy companies to cope with challenges and embrace opportunities.