MedyBiz Pharma, focussed on the delivery of specialised drugs to patients, is now seeking to raise US$ 20 million fund infusion from the private equity or venture capitalists to take its operations to the next phase of growth. The company is gearing up to engage itself with the potential funding agencies to expand its infrastructure and national footprint.
The 5-year old company is working on three areas:. One is that it teams up with leading pharma companies which have specialised high value drug brands that are not just expensive but require advanced temperature controlled storage environments during its transport to the patient’s premises. Here Medybiz takes on the onus to deliver the drugs. It has put in place 18 cold storage units at Ahmedabad, Bangalore Bhubaneswar, Chennai, Chandigarh, Kochi, Delhi, Guwahati, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Pune, Patna and Thiruvananthapuram. It is now gearing up to be certified for ISO and Good Storage Distribution Practices (GSDP) a World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendation.
There is considerable interest evinced by the private equity and the venture capitalists on our business model and we have an edge in the market in terms of reach with pharma companies and corporate houses, Gaurav Narang, chief operating officer, Medybiz Pharma told Pharmabiz.
The increasing chronic illness that require extended medication for the Indian population and its affordability are critical. Medybiz is associated with pharma majors like Allergan, Abbott, Novartis, MSD, AstraZeneca, Dr. Reddy’s Labs, Wockhardt which market high value specialised brands that cost from Rs. 50,000 to over a Rs. 2 lakh under their patient benefit programmes offering 50 per cent discount. If the drug is supplied through Medybiz, the end-users get the discount and assurance of quality storage.
In yet another initiative, Medybiz has also associated with the corporate houses including Information Technology companies, banks and multinational enterprises among others which are linked with health insurance companies or provide assistance from in-house medical resources. Now these companies insist that patients need to source drugs through Medybiz which is economical not just for insurance sector and corporate houses but patients who benefit from the cashless offer.
“Therefore our business is transforming patient care by providing regular access to expensive drugs at affordable prices,” noted Narang.
The Indian pharma and healthcare market are brimming with opportunities and currently we are the only organised player in the space. A visible trend is that there are several new drugs in the pipeline and pharma majors are mandating therapy adherences which gives us huge growth potential to be a part of the patient relief story, he said.
However, there are challenges as awareness about this service across the population is at an ebb, said Narang adding that the additional funding would see expansions in infrastructure and reach.