Pharmacy Cosmetics Sales Drop 33%

The pharmaceutical retail industry has slowed down in recent years, and has gradually shown signs of lack of stamina. Yesterday, at the 2013 China Pharmaceuticals Retail Industry Information Conference (Xip Code) held in Boao, the market size of pharmaceutical retail terminals in 2012 was 230.9 billion yuan, a 13% increase from 2011, but it is expected that the growth rate in 2013 will fall back to 11%. The industry believes that with the deepening of the base drug system, high-end prescription drugs have been regarded as a new force for the development of the industry. The commerce department brewing milk powder into the pharmacy also gave a "strengthen" to the pharmaceutical retail terminal.

Pharmacy Cosmetics Sales Drop 33%

The “Six Pharmaceuticals Market Analysis of China Pharmaceuticals (18.78, -0.72,-3.69%) Industry, Blue Book (2012-2013)” published at the Xipu Society shows that in 2012, the total size of the entire Chinese pharmaceutical market reached 975.5 billion yuan. It is estimated that in 2013, the market size will reach 1.1458 trillion yuan, an increase of 18% from 2012.

“The growth of the pharmaceutical retail industry in the past year has shown signs of weakness and is in a period of weak growth,” said Wu Tong, general manager of Zhongkang Information, who released the Blue Book, when interviewed by a reporter from the Yangcheng Evening News.

For example, in urban-grade hospitals, because the use of antibiotics has been controlled to a certain extent, the pharmaceutical market in the second and third-tier hospitals has grown by 20%, with the growth rate lower than in 2011. Another example is that at the retail terminal, great health that has always been favored has not brought sufficient support to the development of the industry. Non-pharmaceutical performance has been sluggish, even falling. According to statistics from China Health News, only cosmetic brands such as Vichy, La Roche-Posay, and Avene have gradually faded out of the pharmacy market, and cosmetics sales in pharmacies have dropped sharply, a drop of 33% year-on-year.

High-end prescription drugstores force

However, compared with the growth rate of less than 10% in 2011, the pharmaceutical retailing industry has recovered in 2012. Wu Hao believes that this is mainly due to the "backflow" of high-end chronic disease prescription drugs. Specific performance in drugs, such as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, blood pressure and diabetes, the proportion of increased significantly, the growth rate is significantly faster than the overall market and other categories. In addition, noble drugs such as donkey-hide gelatin, cordyceps, and American ginseng also contributed a lot to the growth of pharmacy sales.

Wu Hao said that high-end prescription drugs are regarded as a new force to promote the development of the pharmaceutical retail industry. However, due to uncertainties concerning policies, etc., they fall into the temporary adjustment of hospital breeds, and it is still unknown whether they can be maintained for a long time.

Milk powder companies open up pharmacy channels

It is worth noting that in the Xipu conference area yesterday, reporters actually saw Nestle's presence in addition to the companies such as Xiansheng, Pfizer, Guangyao, and Sanjiu. This is the first time that the Xipu meeting has been held for six years since it was held (see left). This time Nestlé brought the infant formulas of the Nestlé brand and the Wyeth brand.

Recently, Xu Jing, the director of the center, was held at the “Milk Powder into Drugstore Symposium” held by the International Brand Management Center of the Chinese International Trade Institute under the Ministry of Commerce. He planned to have 500 in the country in two and a half years from 2013 to 2015. The city completed the delivery of milk powder counters for 20,000 pharmacies. This cheers the sluggish pharmaceutical retail industry.

Xing Yu, a sales manager of Hopson Medicine Line, told the Yangcheng Evening News that the pharmacy’s profit margins are declining, and the maternal and child industry is still a blue sea. “After pilot production of milk powder, it may be possible to manage pharmacy milk powder business like a license later. Which means that whoever first wins the opportunity, who is the most favorable."

In fact, Wyeth has long classified pharmacies as "special channels." Wyeth related sales staff told the Yangcheng Evening News reporter, Wyeth milk powder began to try to sell in the pharmacy channel last year, "the future pharmacy is Wyeth's channel development focus."