- January 22, 2025
Pharmacy networks constitute one third of the Polish market. Statistically, network outlets have lower drug prices, which translates into a higher number of customers and higher revenues. However, individual pharmacies are increasingly able to cope with competition from networks - under operational agreements or purchasing groups they can effectively negotiate lower prices with suppliers.
- In fact, pharmacies have divided into pharmacies of the new model, i.e. those that can meet the increasingly demanding requirements of customers and patients under increasingly difficult conditions of running this business, and pharmacies of the old model, which are not very able to find themselves in this reality and in my opinion this trend will continue - evaluates Marcin Piskorski, President of the PharmaNET Pharmaceutical Employers' Association, in an interview with the news agency Newseria.
According to the report of Lewiatan Confederation and PharmaNET PharmaNET Pharmacy Employers "Pharmacy networks in Poland", prepared together with PharmaExpert company, there are 330 pharmacy networks in Poland, each comprising five and more pharmacies. They constitute 34% of the market with 14.5 thousand pharmacies in total. Most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises with Polish capital. Of the 330 networks, only 11 have more than 50 pharmacies. The largest of the networks has a market share of more than 4%, two have a market share of 2% each and the remaining two have a market share of less than 1%.
As Piskorski explains, pharmacy chains were the first structure that created price pressure on wholesalers and manufacturers, which in turn translated into lower prices for non-reimbursed medicines for patients.
- Individual pharmacies quite quickly realized that they can do the same thing and outside networks, i.e. organizations affiliated in a capital way, belonging to one owner, we also have a number of virtual networks and shopping groups - says Marcin Piskorski.
The majority of individual pharmacies, which constitute 66% of the market, decide to take such a step. The largest purchasing groups consist of several dozen or even several hundred pharmacies, thanks to which they obtain comparable commercial and price conditions as the chains. The list of 30 best-selling OTC drugs shows, however, that pharmacy networks have better prices of medicines than individual pharmacies,
- In our opinion, this is due to a greater openness to sharing margins with patients and customers. Individual pharmacies often have the possibility to achieve similar or even better commercial conditions, while chains, because they operate in a larger group, can afford to reduce profitability at one pharmacy because they operate in several pharmacies, so they are more inclined to share this reduction with patients - emphasizes the president of the PharmaNET Pharmacy Employers' Association.
As he emphasizes, the still existing differences in prices translate into a higher number of customers and higher turnover in network pharmacies. According to PharmaExpert data, in 2014, an average of 4.5 thousand patients per month came to such an institution, while the individual pharmacy was visited by 3.2 thousand patients. However, the dominance of the network is becoming less and less pronounced.
- Individual pharmacies have learned this modern way of running and begin to use the same techniques as chain pharmacies, so the difference is decreasing, one can say that it can be seen even in monthly surveys - emphasizes Marcin Piskorski.
Patients and customers are attracted to pharmacies not the form of their ownership, but above all the location, availability of medicines, price levels and service.
