Flipkart to enter e-pharmacy space too
2020-08-18According to news reports, Flipkart is looking to enter the e-pharmacy space as demand for online medicine delivery gains speed.
Flipkart is building its own team internally for the e-pharmacy business. But it has also held early stage partnership talks with PharmEasy even as the Mumbai-based e-pharmacy firm is said to be in advanced discussions to acquire Bengaluru-based rival Medlife.
Flipkart CEO, Kalyan Krishnamurthy has held multiple rounds of talks with PharmEasy’s founding team, exploring various contours of a partnership. As Flipkart also wants to be sure of the legal framework before rolling out the service as there are ambiguities with parts of law for selling medicine online, this has created friction with traditional chemists. After Amazon’s rollout of pharmacy services last week in Bengaluru, the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) had sent a letter to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, saying the launch was illegal.
While these discussions are in early stages, a potential investment by Flipkart is also one of the options on the table, but those details have not been finalised yet, sources aware of the discussion added. “We are not in talks with any e-pharma player with an investment view as of now,” a Flipkart spokesperson said, without commenting on discussions for a partnership.
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