The hidden trend of consumer medicine: the market demand for ED drugs worth tens of billions of yuan explodes
2024-08-19
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With the in-depth development of Internet commercialization, online drug trading models have rapidly emerged, and users' demand for purchasing drugs independently through the Internet has increased. Online pharmacy sales have shown a significant upward trend, and their market share has expanded year by year. Especially under the catalysis of the COVID-19 pandemic in the past few years, the overall sales scale of online pharmacies in my country (including drugs and non-drug categories) has achieved rapid growth, showing a strong development trend.
Consumer drugs include anti-hair loss, weight loss drugs, new Chinese medicines and men's medicines, etc. This type of drug has two significant characteristics: first, it does not need to rely on medical insurance reimbursement, and the main consumption scene occurs outside the hospital, which is not affected by medical insurance cost control; second, this type of drug rarely requires a doctor's prescription, and patients can decide to buy it on their own, which has a strong consumer attribute.
Reshaping the consumer medicine market
In the 2023 China Online Pharmacy Drug Sales Ranking, sildenafil ranked first. In addition, tadalafil tablets and dapoxetine hydrochloride tablets ranked third and fifth respectively.
Data source: MinEnet
As the core products that attract customers to offline pharmacies, sildenafil and tadalafil have become hot-selling categories in online pharmacies due to their rigid demand, significant pain points and high privacy. According to data disclosed in the "2024 China Anti-ED Drug Industry White Paper", the incidence of erectile dysfunction (ED) among middle-aged men over 40 years old in my country is as high as 40%. The World Health Organization (WHO) predicts that by 2025, the number of ED patients worldwide will reach 322 million, and the market size is expected to exceed 10 billion yuan.
At present, the anti-ED drug market is mainly composed of three categories of products: foreign original research drugs, domestic generic drugs and domestic independently developed original research drugs. Due to the relatively slow development progress of domestic original research drugs and the limited types on the market, the male medicine market is mainly occupied by foreign original research drugs and domestic generic drugs.
Take sildenafil as an example. The drug was first developed by Pfizer and launched in 1998. Its annual sales have been stable at over one billion US dollars for a long time. Since the expiration of the patent of sildenafil in 2012, generic drug companies around the world have risen rapidly, and more than dozens of pharmaceutical companies in the Chinese market have also participated in it. Generic drugs have rapidly eroded the market share of original drugs with their high cost-effectiveness.
With the advancement of the drug marketing authorization holder (MAH) system, the domestic pharmaceutical industry landscape is quietly changing. Pharmaceutical companies and scientific researchers with R&D capabilities are gradually transforming into drug marketing authorization holders. This trend provides new opportunities for new retail pharmaceutical companies to develop generic drugs through the MAH system and reshape the consumer drug market with their unique channel advantages.
Seize the trend of consumer medicine
In recent years, with the normalization of national volume-based procurement, the promotion of local alliance procurement, and the strict implementation of the DRGs disease-based payment policy, the prices of many drugs have dropped significantly. Various pharmaceutical companies are facing transformation pressure and must quickly adapt to market changes: either fully invest in drug research and development, or promote the branding of generic drugs, or explore new marketing channels to achieve sustainable development.
In 2019, the new version of the Drug Administration Law was introduced to encourage the development of innovative drugs, promote the drug marketing authorization holder (MAH) system, and relax restrictions on online prescription drug sales. With the development of "Internet + medical care", the prescription drug O2O model has ushered in new opportunities.
The rapid growth of the O2O pharmaceutical market has attracted more than 200 million users, showing huge market potential. Taking the new brand Jin Guanai as an example, it actively deploys multiple channels such as Meituan O2O, chain drug stores, single drug stores and clinics, comprehensively covers the online and offline markets, and provides a convenient and professional drug purchasing experience. Through this layout, it not only improves the accessibility of drugs, but also expands the market space and promotes the differentiated development of generic drugs.
Consumer healthcare is an important part of the consumer sector and continues to enjoy dividends on the demand side. There are large contradictions and differences between consumer demand and supply in the domestic pharmaceutical and medical market. This contradiction between supply and demand will also bring huge opportunities to the medical market. There will be more and more new brands like "Jin Guanai" that enter the pharmaceutical outpatient market through new channels and new methods.
As a typical consumer medicine, men's medicine has opened up a new development path for new retail pharmaceutical companies. With the growth of demand, this field is entering a golden period of development.
