This can be particularly understood when Jeff Bezos who led Amazon India launched the Amazon pharmacy in Bengaluru last week. Reliance too is in talks to scale up its grocery and pharmacy platform.

Flipkart is reportedly looking to enter this market and the talks of potential partnership for the same are on with PharmEasy. Flipkart is also planning to launch its own separate business entity and create its own business team for this segment.

Currently, the market for e-pharmacy is fragmented and it is the right time to bring the market together as retailers are in a competition to get a hold of the top position.

Last year the Bengaluru based Medlife made to the headlines when it raised about $ 15.5 million through the issue of non-convertible debentures. Again in May 2019, it acquired Myra which is a Bengaluru – based medicine delivery start-up. The company before that had acquired Medlabz in January which is a digital healthcare platform and also a provider of home diagnostics.

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It has launched the online pharmacy service in Bengaluru, to begin with, and may conduct pilots in other cities too going forward.

The lockdown and social distancing have prompted customers to move to the online consultation, treatment, medical tests, and medicine delivery. Healthcare startups Practo, NetMeds, 1mg, PharmEasy, and Medlife are witnessing a huge surge in demand and a spurt in funding activity, similar to tech platforms, which outperformed all other sectors among startups.

As people spend on boosting their immunity, treat illnesses through online consultations, and buy medicines online, bigger healthcare firms like Practo, 1mg, Medlife, PharmEasy, Netmeds as well as smaller startups like BeatO and Mfine are registering increasing user interest and demand post-COVID.

In recent months teleconsultations at Bengaluru-based on-demand healthcare service Mfine have grown 3-4 times. E-health platform Practo Technologies too registered a 600% growth in online consultations since the lockdown started in March, with 70% of all users being first-time telemedicine users and 45% from smaller cities.

An Amazon spokesperson said, “As a part of our commitment to fulfilling the needs of customers, we are launching Amazon Pharmacy in Bengaluru allowing customers to order prescription-based medication in addition to over-the-counter medicines, basic health devices, and Ayurveda medication from certified sellers. This is particularly relevant in present times as it will help customers meet their essential needs while staying safe at home.”

According to RedSeer Consulting, India’s digital health market will expand to $4.5 billion in this financial year, compared with $1.2 billion in FY20. The consultancy has upped its estimate of the digital health market to $25 billion in FY25, compared with its Pre-COVID estimate of $19 billion. Medicine delivery will continue to comprise a large majority of the market.

Several countries are trying to shift healthcare delivery on to the internet, incentivize telemedicine, encourage online medicine bookings, and use chatbots.

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