The Tmall Medicine Museum restarts the fog, and the prospects of pharmaceutical e-commerce are worrying

Recently, the news that "Tmall Medicine Museum will restart" is attracting attention. Some media reported that the Tmall Medical Museum will reopen at the end of this month, while other media said that Tmall said it has never issued a notice about the restart of the medical museum, and the relevant person in charge is unwilling to comment on this. Whether or not Tmall Medicine Museum will be restarted is confusing.

Dr. Lei Wanyun, head of the Informatization Experts Group and Director of the Information Department of the China Pharmaceutical Group, believes that with the qualifications of Taobao Mall, only drug information can be released and drugs can not be sold directly.

Tmall Medical Center restarts the fog

On June 20 last year, Taobao Mall (now known as “Tmall Mall”), a medical museum officially launched, was investigated by food and drug regulatory agencies of Zhejiang Province on July 8 and only went on line for 18 days. According to the State Food and Drug Administration, Taobao did not qualify for online drug sales and selling drugs was illegal.

Tmall Mall does not seem to want to abandon the profitable business of selling drugs and is always ready to open business. However, whether the medical museum will restart again and the official attitude has changed repeatedly is very confusing.

Chen Jun, vice president of Taobao Mall, disclosed to the media on February 7th this year, “Taobao Mall is about to restart online drug trading.” Chen Jun’s invitation to pharmaceutical companies and informed sources revealed that if there is no accident, Taobao Medical Museum may be in the Spring Festival. After the news on the line.

The Lynx Public Relations Director Yan Qiao denounced “reopening” in a telephone interview on February 7th, stressing that the “Pharmaceutical Museum”’s previous suspension of trading was due to the Taobao Mall spin-off, so “system restart” was used to express the day. It is more accurate to gradually resume business after the feast of the Cat Drug Health Center.

Yan Qiao stated clearly that currently Tmall only sells nutraceuticals, which does not involve “non-prescription drugs”. The information disclosed by Chen Jun was gone. It has been a long time since the Spring Festival. The Tmall Medicine Hall did not make a comeback. This may be an "accident."

On the occasion of Valentine's Day, another news came out and Tmall Medicine will restart. An executive of a pharmaceutical company at Tmall Medicine Medical Center told the media: “Now we have received notice that the Food and Drug Administration has signed the release, and the official opening plan is on the 28th and 29th days of this month.”

On the 15th, another media reporter contacted the State Food and Drug Administration for confirmation afterwards, but no reply was received. On the Tmall side, Yan Qiao is not willing to comment on the statement that “the Food and Drug Administration has signed and released”.

Yesterday, the reporter logged into the Tmall Medical Museum and found that there were almost no OTC drugs on the page.

Mei Shaozu, an e-commerce expert and professor at Beijing University of Science and Technology, told reporters: “The licensing conditions for pharmaceuticals are higher than those for food and other products. Therefore, the sale of pharmaceuticals must, to a certain degree, strictly review the conditions of its sales. Tmall Mall will restart pharmaceuticals. It's hard to say.”

Dr. Lei Wanyun said that on September 29, 2005, the State Food and Drug Administration issued the Provisional Regulations for the Examination and Approval of Internet Drug Trading Services, clarifying that drug trading must have two hard conditions. First, pharmacies must be self-owned enterprises. The second is the chain. To put it plainly, online pharmaceuticals, like physical pharmacies, must have relevant pharmaceutical business qualifications. With the qualifications of Taobao Mall, only drug information can be released, and drugs can not be sold directly.

Health Center: Poor performance after drugstores settled

According to information from the Tmall platform, as of now, the B2C pharmacies that have settled in the “Pharmaceutical Health Center” have been expanded from 15 at the start of the Taobao Mall Health Care Center to 15. Among the 15 pharmacies, the first batch of Yunnan Baiyao pharmacies cooperating with Taobao Mall has disappeared and replaced by “Yunnan Baiyao Flagship Store”. The products sold in the store are all daily chemical products and medicinal materials. There are non-prescription drugs.

The person in charge of a pharmacy in Guangdong, who once called “the pharmaceutical B2C market is full of gold”, even told reporters bluntly: “There has been no major increase in performance after the arrival.”

According to industry insiders, in view of the nature of e-commerce is to reduce the middle channels, so how to deal with the contradiction between the distribution of traditional medicine may also be a problem that Tmall Medical Center needs to deal with.

The prospects of pharmaceutical e-commerce industry are unknown

In June last year, despite the fact that the Tmall Medical Museum died in the middle of the road, it did not affect the interest of other e-commerce companies in selling drugs. In July, Jingdong, which had no online sales of medicines, also announced that it would cooperate with Kyushu Express and invest in Kyocera's good pharmacist pharmacy chain Co., Ltd. to jointly conduct medical B2C business. JD.com’s old rival Dangdang.com, although he has moved, said that CEO Li Guoqing has been in contact with wholesalers and retailers who are qualified to sell drugs, but has not yet obtained relevant qualifications from the Food and Drug Administration, but “is still actively applying”. .

E-commerce officials have all determined that the drug sales business is a big deal. Analyst Mo Yanqing of the China Electronic Commerce Research Center said in an interview with reporters that “medical e-commerce has great potential, and it has also developed quite well abroad. It is true that although the road has been twisted and twisted at the beginning of the country, I think there is a future for development.The advantage of medical e-commerce is that the prices in the pharmaceutical industry are relatively high, and through the online platform, drug prices can be made more transparent and drug information can be made more transparent. It has the potential to become a new competition point for B2C companies."

Mei Shaozu believes that there is no obvious advantage in online drug sales. He said, “On-line drug sales may be lower than physical stores to a certain extent, but in physical stores, the price of drugs is also high or low. Meanwhile, drugs The preservation is a more complicated process, especially the treatment of expired drugs, etc., which need to rely on physical stores. In addition, the sale of drugs on the Internet also involves shipping costs, so the price is not necessarily favorable to physical stores. ."

Dr. Lei Wanyun said that the development of pharmaceutical e-commerce needs to comply with policies that require professionals to cooperate with professional organizations. We can foresee the excellent situation of pharmaceutical e-commerce, but at present medical e-commerce is still in a tender state. As of now, medical e-commerce (B2C) has been at a loss. In addition to policy factors, factors such as imperfect operating systems (such as medical insurance, hospitals, and online pharmacy linkages), backwardness of information sharing systems, and difficulties in distribution also directly constrain business development.

It can be seen that the development of pharmaceutical e-commerce is difficult, so Tmall Mall had to be cautious after two setbacks.

Mo Yuqing believes that if the Tmall Medical Museum can start business, then the medical e-commerce will play an encouraging role. Because the development of medical e-commerce from the beginning of development due to limited conditions does not go well, and even encountered obstacles, if Tmall Medicine Pavilion can restart, this industry will see hope, be regarded as a turning point for the current drug B2C face awkward situation.

But all it takes is if the Tmall Mall Medical Center can be brought back to life and it will gradually come to the end of this month.