Recently, I had a conversation with one of our clients who happens to be one of the top 5 Pharma company in India on the fate of branded generics in the era of an online pharmacy where a patient (end-user) is given 10 choices for a prescribed molecule having a different price range and not only that they also provide medical and technical information.
The question is what’s in it for the branded generic manufacturers? Do online pharmacies pose a threat to retailers by offering up to 20% off on the purchase of medicines? Is a common man capable enough to take a decision on which brand of generic to buy? what will prompt end-user to buy a product which has huge variation in costing i.e. INR 7 to INR 189 for a product like ciprofloxacin?
On one hand, there are Multinational companies selling branded generics with a lot of thrust on PR and Mass Marketing (Image Building) and other side are the companies existing in-country for more than 3-4 decades and had been selling generic drugs at affordable prices to end users but very little known to masses due to their lack of interest in PR/ Image Building activities. Who do you think, will win in this competitive and transformed or rather transforming healthcare era??