Heres How A Teenagers Brainchild Is Bringing Affordable Generic Medicines To Indian Homes
Image Credit: Arjun Deshpande, Unsplash

Here's How A Teenager's Brainchild Is Bringing Affordable Generic Medicines To Indian Homes

Generic Aadhar, the brainchild of a then 16-year-old Arjun Deshpande, stepped in to revolutionize the face of India's pharma industry by making affordable low-cost generic medicines available to the ordinary person in the country.

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The COVID-19 pandemic once again proved the importance of the healthcare industry and how chemists, nurses and doctors form a significant component of the frontline workers. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the Indian pharma sector had earned the world's trust, thereby making the country' pharmacy of the world'. India's booming pharmaceutical industry is a leading source of innovation, especially in life-saving drugs. However, several companies ensure doubling their profits by increasing the costs of the medicines they sell.

What Is Generic Aadhar?

The brainchild of a then 16-year-old Arjun Deshpande, stepped in to revolutionize the face of India's pharma industry by making affordable low-cost generic medicines available to the ordinary person in the country. Generic Aadhaar, India's one-stop solution for healthcare needs, was founded in 2018. The company delivers high-quality medicine at up to 80% lower price than branded counterpart from manufacturers to end-users directly, eliminating middle-chain costs such as high promotional, marketing, distribution, stocking, and supply chain through its unique pharmacy-aggregator franchise business model.

While speaking to The Logical Indian, Arjun Deshpande, the founder of Generic Aadhar, said, "I was sixteen and had gone to a medical store near my house when I saw that an old man had come to buy medicines for his wife who was suffering from cancer. However, since the bill was huge, and he could not afford to pay ₹ 15,000 for medicines, the store owner was reluctant to give him the medicines".

The incident opened young Arjun's eyes to the world where people could not afford to buy medicines to cure themselves. He further added, "Medicines are not a luxury, but a basic necessity for almost everyone. My mother had been in an international pharma firm for 20 years; therefore, I knew that India is one of the biggest manufacturers of generic medicines. Moreover, one-third of the total export of generic medicines is carried out by India alone".

Price Difference In Essential Medicine

Arjun identified that despite the considerable production taking place in the country, Indians can still afford the essential medicines. After much research, he found that the medicine costing ₹ 15,000 had a manufacturing cost of only ₹ 3,000. The considerable price difference between the manufacturing and the selling price of the medicines was the cause of worry. Initially, when Arjun did not have enough capital to invest and start the business, even though he purchased the medicines at a low cost from the manufacturer, he could not reach directly to the consumer because of a lack of marketing campaigns.

Therefore, Arjun started reaching out to small local medical stores facing tough competition from the emerging industries. Arjun thought of taking the small medical stores under the roof of Generic Aadhar and re-life them through a franchise and a digital support system; he could reach a mass audience. Generic Aadhar planned to save on all costs and have maximum impact by cutting down all the middleman-ship like stockers and wholesale sellers.

Empowers Local Medical Shops

Generic Aadhaar takes local pharmacy owners to the digital world using traditional transaction methods through its user-friendly software. The software helps them grow business at offline and online model also manages the invoices and billing and scales their business through the franchise model. Generic Aadhaar integrates independent pharmacies by providing them with a brand identity that can help in capturing maximum market share with a franchise model.

Meanwhile, the company also provides an online application for consumers to order medicines and deliver them to their doorstep within two hours from nearby Generic Aadhaar franchise stores. Consumers can directly purchase drugs from franchise stores. So Generic Aadhaar empowers more than 10 lakh retailers across India and supports them in competing well with medical malls and online pharmacies. The B2B and B2C model of Generic Aadhaar emphasizes providing affordable medicines and generating a significant number of entrepreneurs and job possibilities throughout India. Following an ideology of creating job creators, not job seekers, the company targets empowering the youth of India with its "Expensive Medicines Mukt Bharat Mission".

Backed By Ratan Tata

On the one hand, it caters exclusively to 60 per cent of Indians who can't afford their daily medications. On the other, it provides franchises to standalone medical stores with brand value, marketing, and promotion, thereby generating a league of self-sustaining entrepreneurs. Business Tycoon Ratan Tata identified the young entrepreneur in Arjun and invested in this pharma company. Customers here get up to 80 per cent discount on all 14 segments of medicines such as Cardiology, Anti Diabetic, Nephrology, Neurology, Nutraceuticals, Antibiotics, Oncology, Paediatrics, Dermatology, Psychotropic and Orthopaedic with a range up to 1000 products of medicines with the retailer getting a margin of up to 40 per cent.

Apart from that, Generic Aadhar has been recognized and applauded on many national and international platforms. In just three years of inception, the company has established a footprint in more than 150 cities. It has launched around 1500 plus medical franchises across India, employing up to 1,500 micro-entrepreneurs and creating direct and indirect employment opportunities for around 10,000 people.

Meanwhile, Generic Aadhaar has served 30 lakh healthcare services through its franchises. In a costly healthcare framework in India, it's an honest and dedicated mission to provide affordable medicines to the ordinary person – 19-year-old Arjun Deshpande is on a mission to make medicines affordable and available in each. Every corner of the country with this Generic Aadhaar is changing the decade-old traditional pharma industry to better the ordinary individual.

Generic Aadhaar aims at giving inexpensive and quality medicines to each Indian by aggregating the medical stores under one umbrella. Deshpande's company gets drugs directly from WHO GMP approved facilities, making them reachable to everyone at Generic Aadhaar aggregated stores. Through Generic Aadhaar, people can get medicines at prices as low as nearly 80 per cent compared to the market.

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