Exclusive: Healthkart, online health store selling which has been so far selling only non-prescription medicines now recently started selling prescription drugs through its platform Healthkartplus, which was launched in September 2012 as a search engine for prescribed drugs. Healthkartplus is now a marketplace, allowing consumers to purchase prescribed drugs, at present only in the Delhi-NCR region. Why a marketplace for prescribed drugs? Speaking with MediaNama, Sameer Maheshwari, Co-Founder, Healthkart said that the number of drug SKUs are humongous and the market is local. Since drugs are marketed to doctors, only about 10,000-20,000 drugs might be popular in a particular locality, and Healthkart is trying to address this by providing a comprehensive view of all the available drugs. Maheshwari claimed that Healthkartplus has a database of over 100,000 medicines for both chronic (like diabetes, hypertension) and acute (fever, common cold) diseases. When we checked Healthkartplus, we found out that the site provides information on composition, salts and substitutes for the drug. Apart from finding information on the drug, consumers can also place order by first checking if the delivery service is available for their area. Consumers need to enter their area pin code by clicking on the enter pin code button. Depending on the availability, they can place the order. The order placed on the site is then passed onto the chemist, added Maheshwari. The company foresees people largely using this service to purchase medicines for chronic diseases. On asking about the sale and delivery of acute medicines, Maheshwari replied that people can use the…
