“The severe and disruptive COVID-19 pandemic was a hard-learnt lesson underlining the importance of universal access to healthcare. The first step to such inclusivity is making it affordable. Over half a decade before the importance of quality and affordable healthcare was widely discussed, Ankur Agarwal and I took our first step in this direction by founding an omnichannel generic medicine retail chain, Medkart, in 2014. Since then, through our venture, we have been on a mission to make quality medicines affordable.
After we started our business, understood the challenges, identified the available generic medicine molecules, and interacted with customers, we realised the severe impact of costlier medicines and the sheer lack of awareness about generics.
For example, some cancer patients refuse treatment due to the sheer cost of medicines! People with common lifestyle ailments such as diabetes and hypertension succumb to or worsen their conditions for lack of available, affordable alternatives. The repercussions are countless – all for medicines remaining costlier. Someone had to change this! Our repeated interactions with each of our customers only strengthen our motivation and commitment to making quality, affordable generic medicines widely available.
Eight years down the line, Medkart has a network of 100+ stores in 15 cities of Western India and a comprehensive online retail portal — all catering to 6 lakh unique customers who have collectively saved at least Rs 200 crore on their medical bills. Adding to this, some 6,000 doctors testify to the quality and affordability of these medicines.
No change is ever easy, and this sure wasn’t! Besides scaling up Medkart by identifying the right target groups and strategy, the mission to make medicines affordable meant changing the entire ecosystem. Therefore, creating awareness among consumers, informing them right, pushing for policy changes and implementation to include molecule names and not brand names of drugs in medical prescriptions, assuring consumers about quality, and ensuring we build an inventory with a range of molecules that are not just of a benchmark quality and affordable but also covering all therapies – was augmented in the business strategy. Achieving this is a work in progress, and we often celebrate small victories, one little change at a time.”
About the SPJ Alum:
A young, astute entrepreneur with a wide-ranging experience in different roles and diverse sectors, Parasharan Chari (GMBA 2007) is the co-founder of Medkart Pharmacy, spearheading its business development, marketing, and operations. Before founding this venture, Parasharan was the COO at Endeavor Careers, helping MBA aspirants ace their entrance exams, and has worked with 40,000+ students during his time here.
He loves spending time with his family and friends and is very passionate about sports and fitness. In less than 3 years, Parasharan completed 20+ half marathons, multiple 50+ km runs, and even a 100 km cycling race! Currently, Parasharan enjoys cricket and Karting, among other sports.
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