Retail Pharmaceutical Distribution
One would expect that the trends developing in the Retail Pharmaceutical Distribution network would be most clearly defined by the COVID19 crisis that emerged in 2020, and one would be right. Apotheca, Inc. brings the correct wholesale industry experience to help clients navigate these trends successfully and profitably. Here’s what we’ve been seeing.
In December the Global “Pharmaceutical Retail Chain Market” report was released. The report details Pharmaceutical Retail Chain Market size, trends, growth, cost, structure, capacity, revenue, and forecasts through 2025. Suffice it to say it is very… very dry.
The Overall Trend
MarketWatch reports,
“From 2015 to 2019, the growth rate of global Pharmaceutical Retail Chain market size was in some range. At the end of 2019, COVID-19 began to erupt in China, Due to the huge decrease of the global economy; we forecast the growth rate of the global economy will show a decrease of about 4%, due to this reason, the Pharmaceutical Retail Chain market size in 2020 with a growth rate of percentage. This is percentage points lower than in previous years. As of the date of the report, there have been more than 20 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, and the epidemic has not been effectively controlled. Therefore, we predict that the global epidemic will be basically controlled by the end of 2020 and the global Pharmaceutical Retail Chain market size will reach million USD in 2025, with a CAGR between 2020-2025.”
But don’t worry, they eventually got to the goods, RELATIVELY OPTIMISTIC GROWTH!
“With the slowdown in world economic growth, the Pharmaceutical Retail Chain industry has also suffered a certain impact, but still maintained a relatively optimistic growth, the past four years, Pharmaceutical Retail Chain market size to maintain the average annual growth rate of 15 from 2015 to 2020, BisReport analysts believe that in the next few years, Pharmaceutical Retail Chain market size will be further expanded, we expect that by 2025.”
More Nuanced Trends
Aside from an overall trend of growth, a number of more nuanced trends are developing in Pharmaceutical distribution, Wholesale Medical Suppliers, and Pharmacy Consulting & Technology.
Changes to Ensure Safe Use of Medications
According to DrugTopics.com
“Calvin Knowlton, PhD, MDiv, BScPharm, CEO of Tabula Rasa Healthcare and former president of the American Pharmacists Association, believes one of the biggest trends in 2021 will be a focus on the safe use of medications.
“We have been talking about this for more than 5 decades, but it seems that this will become the future of the pharmacy practice,” he said.”
There are multiple causes for this shift. For example, dispensing margins continue to plunge, which reduces a pharmacist’s involvement and builds upon the responsibilities of pharmacy techs. Furthermore, government mandates, fueled by interventionist policies are moving the entire industry toward value-based payment rather than a purely profit-driven model.
In Dr. Knowlton’s opinion pharmacists, as front-line workers are better positioned to identify and mitigate adverse drug effects. In an age of accelerated vaccination development, this is crucial.
“Pharmacists fully understand and have been educated on the sciences underlying drug disposition,” he said. “If one compares the curriculum of pharmacy school education to medical school education, pharmacy education focuses on pharmacokinetics, pharmacogenomics, pharmacodynamics, etc, and medical education focuses on the pathophysiology of organ systems and differential diagnoses.”
This change could also drive Physician dispensing solutions, as well as Generic Drug purchasing solutions for many distributors and Pharmacy technology, needs to adapt to compensate for the major shift in operations.
Deal Making Activity on The Rise?
Clarkston Consulting also tells us, that the uncertainty which drove the market throughout the early COVID scare caused a pivot amongst pharmaceutical industry players to focus on “establishing partnerships to aid in combatting the pandemic and searching for a vaccine.”
They wrote,
“Economic uncertainty driven by the novel coronavirus led to a decrease in deal making activity and size throughout 2020. The acquisition of Immunomedics by Gilead Sciences at $21B remains the largest industry deal of the year, a relatively small size compared to 2019’s $95B Bristol-Myers and Celgene deal or AbbVie’s $63B acquisition of Allergan.
Instead, companies in the pharmaceutical industry pivoted to focus on establishing partnerships to aid in combatting the pandemic and searching for a vaccine. Not only were pharma and biotech companies of every size partnering together, they were also establishing cross-industry partnerships with academic and healthcare institutions.”
All of this shows us the importance of robust supply chain solutions for medical companies overall and pharmacies in particular which can include more advanced remote pharmacy technology for specialty dispensing services and more diverse drug purchasing solutions. But that all of this at the end of the day leads to? GROWTH. Not just recovery, but truly lasting growth in the pharmaceutical industry.
Apotheca Wholesale Pharmaceuticals is well equipped and stocked to help your business enjoy truly lasting growth in 2021.
Contact us today at Customerservice@apothecainc.com or call us at 602-252-5244.