Breaking Barriers in Healthcare: The Game-Changer – MrMed, an Online Pharmacy Revolutionizing Specialty Medicines
Our mission at MrMed is to empower patients and caretakers transform the way specialty medicines are accessed. By combining easy access and quick plus safe delivery, we are breaking down barriers and ensuring that every
Our mission at MrMed is to empower patients and caretakers transform the way specialty medicines are accessed. By combining easy access and quick plus safe delivery, we are breaking down barriers and ensuring that every patient receives the life-changing treatments they deserve.”
–By Devashish Singh, Co-founder & CEO of MrMed
What is MrMed and the journey behind the platform?
MrMed is an online super speciality pharmacy delivering life saving medicines across the country. MrMed reduces the overall cost burden by providing high discounts and convenience of ordering, delivery, and payment. MrMed also provides essential guidance in availing financial assistance offered by pharmaceutical companies, NGOs etc as well as other non-clinical services.
MrMed is a licensed pharmacy and started in June 2021 and has grown significantly since then. MrMed has over 45,000 registered users and has delivered 2000+ speciality SKUs to 1800+ cities in India. MrMed has been awarded FICCI’s HealthCare Startup of the Year in 2022 in TN and has also been recognized by the Government of Tamil Nadu.
What are the major problems that MrMed has solved for the buyers of specialty medicines?
High prices, unavailability of medicines, inconvenience and trust deficit were the initial problems identified.
MrMed has aggregated the supply chain of these medicines and through direct procurement MrMed has created price standardization in a very obfuscated market. On an average, MrMed has provided discounts of 40% to patients, thereby clearly providing affordability.
Further, by being agnostic to brand or pharmaceutical company, MrMed has created the largest basket of speciality medicines – all specialities, all products, all companies. And through efficient air and ground logistics, MrMed has delivered to 1800 cities across India. There are very few patient facing pharmacies in India (probably just large hospital pharmacies) whose range of specialities SKUs sold is on the same level as that sold by MrMed in two years.
Lastly, by building world class web and mobile applications along with impeccable customer service and a 98% order fulfilment rate, MrMed has created convenience and a brand that patients can trust thereby providing accessibility and reliability.
How do you think that MrMed will revolutionize the specialty-medicine industry in the next 5 years?
I think MrMed has already set some important benchmarks when it comes to price standardization. In the future, we aim to continue to innovate to keep building on our four pillars – affordability, availability, accessibility and reliability.
What problems did you face while establishing your startup?
We went live right in the middle of the Covid delta wave in India, when there was just immense demand for the anti-viral Remdesivir and the anti-fungal Amphotericin B. Patients started depositing money in our bank accounts in a dire need for these medicines. Our stocks and procurement capability could not keep up with the demand and we had to refund most of the money and create a rationing system for the limited stocks that we had. However, in that first week itself we realized that what we were doing is not easy, lives are at stake and there is a clear purpose for us to fulfil.
Other initial problems we faced included gaining customers’ trust. At times, I have sent my own PAN and Aadhar cards to customers to prove that we are genuine. Thankfully, now our team and our brand has started to do that work for us.
Why is MrMed focused only on specialized medicine and not on other medicines?
We wanted to solve a problem that truly exists. There are millions of chemists in India and pretty much none of them hold speciality medicines in inventory. The market might be smaller but it is underserved.
Further, Saurab Jain, my cofounder has built super speciality supply chain expertise over the past eight years and we felt very comfortable in entering this space.
What problems do you think still exist in the industry?
The biggest problem is lack of clarity given to patients and their caregivers. Doctors are extremely overworked and burdened, and their advice in the OP chamber sometimes does not properly assimilate to the patients. And once patients and their caregivers leave the doctor’s chambers, they are bombarded with so much information by others, it can be overwhelming.
