Great Companies: How did you get your idea or concept for the business?
Sachin Sudhakar Birari: I am Pharmacist and Management graduate and worked for couple of Pharmaceutical Organizations, since 2002. All along I have been working in Pharmaceutical Sales and Marketing for Domestic/Indian Market at Corporate level. Further, by virtue of having a lot of friends & colleagues in this sector, I also got exposed to various categories of markets like highly regulated markets (USA, EU, CA, AU and Japan), semi-regulated markets (Emerging Countries like Brazil, Russia and countries from Eastern Europe), and Rest of the Word (less stringed/less regulated countries like African counties, South East Asian countries and a few middle east countries). When I thought through how regulations and intellectual property regimen impacting operations/workings of all these markets, it became amply clear to me that in India we are having medicines of following three categories – Branded medicines (Innovated Medicines having New Patented molecules and hence very costly), Branded Generics (Once the patent is off, other companies do launch the same molecule as Me Too, but promoted through sales force as Brand and are relatively less costly than innovator/patented medicines) and Generic Generics (Same like Branded Generics, these Products are having molecules which are not patent protected and also not promoted as Branded Generics and hence not costly at all). In India a sizeable chunk of the market (approx 85%) is dominated by Branded Generics where these products are getting promoted to the doctors through sales force and hence they are costly. With this understanding at core and to have quality medicines at affordable prices, I set out to map the various stakeholders of the Indian pharmaceutical market like manufacturers, distribution channels (Stockiest/Retailers and Carrying and Forwarding Agents), regulatory authorities (Central/DCGI/MCI/IMA and State FDAs) and professional associations (PCI, AIOCD, State Associations, etc.) and zeroed on to the related inefficiencies in Indian pharmaceutical marketplace. Thus, eventually, I came out with this business model of promoting Generic Medicines in different way through the own enterprise named Generilife Private Limited.
Great Companies: What are the various Services provided by GENERILIFE PRIVATE LIMITED
Sachin Sudhakar Birari: Generilife Private Limited, offer the franchise of Generic Medicines Store named “Swast Aushadhi Kendra” which is exclusively generic medicines store. We are partner in progress to the Franchise Owner throughout the life of a Franchise. We Guide, Coach, Assist, Mentor, Train & Help the franchisee in each and every step of Franchise building. Further, we help them in promotion of the outlet as well as we supply them Generic Medicines uninterruptedly.
We at Generilife, encourage youths to come forward and become Entrepreneur (at minimal investment) with a social cause of selling Quality Generic Medicines at substantially discounted price to the all needy patients through their own franchisee of “Swast Aushadhi Kendra”.
Great Companies: What makes GENERILIFE PRIVATE LIMITED different from hundreds of other Retail Pharmacy Firms?
Sachin Sudhakar Birari: Generilife Swast Aushadhi Kendra are serving the society by providing Quality Medicines at Affordable Price. At Generilife Swast Aushadhi Kendra, we sell exclusively Generic Medicines from various reputed pharma companies at 30% to 80% discount on MRP to the patients. Thus, we help the common man to save their hard-earned money.
Generilife Swast Aushadhi Kendra offers huge range of the medicines which gets prescribed in the treatment of Acute ailments as well as Chronic ailments. Moreover we at Generilife Swast Aushadhi Kendra are committed to “Increase the awareness of the generic medicines “ in the society through various activities such as Patient Counseling and Patient Education. At Generilife Swast Aushadhi Kendra, it’s not only the team members but Directors also closely work with the franchise, handhold them, guide them, this boosts the confidence amongst the team.
Great Companies: What are the struggles and challenges you face?
Sachin Sudhakar Birari: Inadequate knowledge, lack of awareness and lack of trust about generic medicines in Indian Society. Non-compliance of the new MCI guidelines by most of the medical practioners. Partial implementation of the government policies by government
Great Companies: How do you plan to grow in the future? What does 5 years down the line look like for GENERILIFE PRIVATE LIMITED?
Sachin Sudhakar Birari: We would continue growing by having strong foothold in our home state and expanding our operations in neighboring states such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Telangana. We are aiming to serve at least 2+ Crs Indians. We are also planning to launch our own generic medicines in select few therapeutic categories.
Great Companies: If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?
Sachin Sudhakar Birari: Entrepreneurship is like sailing in the boat, so having patience, courage and consistent efforts in the right direction, you will enjoy the bon-voyage.
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