Wellness medical distribution launch online platform for pharmaceutical products in Nigeria
By Ifeoma Ikem
Wellness Healthcare Group on Monday launched an online platform for sales of pharmaceutical products that is affordable and accessible to suppliers across Nigeria market.
The Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Digital Encode Limited, Dr Obadare Peter, says technology has changed the landscape for every business in the world and Pharmacy profession had toed the path of digitalization.
Peter disclosed this in his keynote address titled ‘ Exploring the Digital Age Opportunities: the Future of healthcare in Africa during the launch of Pharmacentre, at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.
The CEO described the launch of Pharmacentre as apt adding that technology has made things very easy to end users which was one of the major reason wellness healthcare brought their products to help enhanced healthcare service delivery.
According to the group, history made people to understand that over 253,000 deaths happen yearly in Nigeria, due to insufficient access to quality healthcare and a good number of the casualties come from inadequate health systems due to little or no access to medicines.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, major disruptions has occured in the pharmaceutical markets globally through technology and online commerce, in a bid to facilitate easier and safer access to drugs.
As such, technology has made it convenient getting medicines online for consumers for the benefit of quick, easy and private access to medical needs, with the click of a mouse.
Obadare said, we have reached the limit of how far we can automate our operational processes. Working as an integrated company will slow us down and tackle innovation . Becoming a digital marketer helps to strategize ourselves in the physical world and still be valuable in the digital economy
“ Digitalization is actually changing everything that we are doing today. During covid, most industries were disrupted .
” With this launch, Pharmacentre is the biggest in the pharmaceutical industry in Nigeria at the moment
He said, “there is no doubt that technology is the elephant in the house . But its usage comes with a lot of risk .
“The reality is that if you do what is right in terms of due care and due-diligence, most of those inherent risks that can impact on customers and other people within the eco system will be minimized.
“Pharmacentre has therefore, put the mechanism in place to consider the issue of security and cybercrime . This is to ensure that everyone that comes on board are those validated. It is also to ensure that the right people are within that eco system to take care of all of those inherent concerns of people”.
Prof. Cyril Usifo,the National president , Pharmaceutical Companies in Nigeria,addresses Pharmacentre initiative as a right step in the right direction, noting that one would be overtaken by technology if not embraced.
He notes that the platform would not only create a common meeting place for Pharmacists and other stakeholders to get what they need, but it would also facilitate tracking of adulterated drugs within the space.
Director, in charge of Pharmacist Council of Nigeria, Lagos Zonal Office, Dr Ukamaka Okafor, stated that Pharmacentre would absorb a lot of problems of community pharmacists.
Recently, the council launched an online pharmacy regulations that would assist young pharmacists who could not afford the infrastructure needed to host online platforms.
But with Pharmacentre, it will assist committed pharmacists who want to do online pharmacy in their investment. All they need to do is to come under this platform and then practice the community pharmacy.
” We at Pharmacist Council of Nigeria are the regulators and our work is to ensure that all Pharmacentre products is going to be in line with laid down standard. Any pharmacist that would have to come under Pharmacentre platform is supposed to be registered by the Council.
“They have the wholesale and retail pharmacy as well as the community pharmacy and the end users which is the last -mile distribution. For the last -mile distribution, it is expected that the community pharmacy interface with the patients . On this point, the patient or the client is not allowed to access pharmaceutical products on that platform without interfacing with the pharmacist. So these are part of the things that we as Pharmacist Council of Nigeria are going to ensure it happen”.
Mrs. Adetutu Afolabi, the Group MD/CEO of Wellness Medical Distribution, said that “today’s world is filled with uncertainty, broken infrastructure, and numerous supply chain challenges. As affordability and accessibility to pharmaceutical supplies when needed, in Nigeria it has become a strong pain point, having a value-driven platform like Pharmacentre that enhances collaboration amongst pharmacists and other healthcare providers will improve the well-being of our people.”
“Nobody should be left stranded because they do not have a pharmacist in their network.”,she said.
According to her,Pharmacentre is an online platform that enables licensed medical professionals to sell quality medical products to businesses and consumers alike as an integrative marketplace,
“Many persons within the country, battling with chronic health conditions or having challenges in accessing traditional pharmacy services search for relevant platforms for access to quality medical products.
While a number of e-platforms in Nigeria exist to cater to this need, there are still very significant gaps in linkages between all points of the pharmaceutical supply chain. Also, a bulk of these existing platforms are largely consumer-facing and do not seamlessly solve the need for pharmacies looking to stock medical .
She explained that the Pharmacentre platform, however, enables users to either register as individuals or businesses. Registered users are further required to indicate if they would be interacting on the platform as a customer or as a vendor. However, only licensed vendors are authenticated to sell on the marketplace.
Through the platform, users, whether as individuals or businesses, will be able, not only to get quality medicines from licensed vendors but also able to get these delivered conveniently to their doorsteps, with the least hassle. Using the ‘Talk to a Pharmacist’ feature as well, users on the platform can easily get first-hand recommendations and prescriptions from licensed pharmacists before purchasing drugs online.
Vendors on the platform get to benefit from the ease of listing their medical products on the platform, thereby, broadening the visibility of their business and brand. They also get to track how their products are faring via real-time marketing reports/dashboards showing sales on the platform. Vendors likewise are able to run promotions on the platform to market their products to a wider viewership as well as flexibly offer discounts on their products.
The mobile app affords users the power to choose health and wellness for themselves, through options to request healthcare services and monitor their health from the comfort of their homes.
Also Wellness Healthcare Group is committed in providing good and affordable healthcare to all through its robust innovative healthcare solutions.
To know more about the Pharmacentre platform, visit https://pharmacentre.afric
