“Mail of Russia” started to deliver medicines from distributors to pharmacies. In the future, the company plans to do and delivering them to end customers — while permission pharmacies are just starting out. Experts doubt that “Mail of Russia” there are sufficient resources to deliver on the house transportation and couriers.”Mail of Russia” has entered the market of drug delivery, it is already implementing logistics between distributors and pharmacies, and later plans to deliver the orders directly to the buyer, told “Kommersant” representative of the state-owned companies. Associates there do not open, but specify that the company is working “with the relevant marketplace”. Now “Mail of Russia” carries out delivery only to pharmacies and the only items that do not require special conditions of storage and transportation, Deputy General Director of the company for e-Commerce Alex Skatin. “The second phase involves the expansion of the range with the ability to carry more complex products that require licensing. The third stage of service development for drug delivery to the final buyers,” he added.”Mail of Russia” has long been interested in the pharmaceutical market. Its former General Director (now Deputy CEO) Nikolay Podguzov has repeatedly talked about plans to deliver medicine to the population, including the forces of postmen. In December the “Mail of Russia” has launched a pilot project for the sale of drugs in three post offices in the Samara region.Online trade of drugs with home delivery has long been limited by law. On 3 April, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed the law on distance selling of drugs, and may 18, the government approved the rules of their online sales. Many of the respondents ‘ b ‘ market participants of electronic Commerce criticized the document, seeing in it a preference for pharmacy chains, as trade through the marketplace he was not allowed. In particular, the decree obliges to have a license for pharmaceutical activity received no later than a year ago, and not less than ten outlets. The first permission to trade under the new rules the capital’s pharmacies began to may 27, according to the Roszdravnadzor in Moscow.Even before the legalization of online trade of drugs, this market is rapidly growing, as many companies, including online retailer Ozon, found ways to circumvent the ban, for example, through an online order with pickup from the pharmacy. The evaluation partner Data Insight Boris Ovchinnikov, in 2019, this market has grown by more than 90% to about 86 billion rubles Only through online, the Agency estimated in last year and has made 52 million of orders in this category, approximately 5% of which was delivered to the house. Regardless of who is first able to deliver drugs according to the new rules, it is unlikely sa�� the fact of its legalization will significantly affect the pace of development of the market, said Boris Ovchinnikov. “It will be a premium service. Many buyers have already mastered format pickup, they will be difficult to retrain to a new format,” he says.According to the Director for development of RNC Pharma Nicholas Bespalova, the share of online booking and grey delivery now accounts for 7% of the retail market of medicines. In the next two years, the online segment can easily take up to 15-20% of the market, he predicts. Thus mister Bespalov has doubts about the plans of “Mail of Russia” delivery of drugs to the end user, as this it does not have sufficient resources — couriers and transport.The market entry of medicines implies substantial regulatory burden, and that means jobs and investment in the field of quality assurance, warns the head of practice on working with companies in the areas of health and pharmaceuticals, KPMG in Russia and the CIS Victoria Samson. In addition, she recalls, from July 1 will be mandatory participation in the national system of marking that “Mail of Russia” will mean the need for configuration of IT systems, modification of some business processes and preliminary testing of the model transactions with counterparties.Dmitry Shestoperov, Maria Kotova
