Accessible Medicine Distribution Through Pharmacy as a Service

Q: What role does PAAS play in Mexico’s healthcare system?

A: Technology can fill many gaps in medicine distribution, enhance the experience for users who make their purchases online and respond to the needs of different medicine providers. Many actors in the industry want to sell medicines without having to become a pharmacy, including doctors, insurers, digital prescription providers or telemedicine apps.

Pharmacy as a Service (PAAS) is the medicine supplier that allows these players to sell medicines while receiving a commission for using the platform. Our digital pharmacy infrastructure allows clients to select the medicines the patient needs and to provide those medicines. We are able to supply all types of medicines, from specialty to over the counter (OTC) medications because our clients are prescription providers. The added value of PAAS is our data collection from each purchase, which ensures we know the origin of every sale. All our technology development is done in-house but we also use Google and Amazon services.  

Q: What is your strategy to provide medical professionals a competitive inventory of medicines?

A: We have two catalogs. The first is for medicines that must be delivered immediately. These medicines have same-day delivery for clients in Mexico City. Medicines in the second catalog are delivered the next day in Mexico City and within 24-48 hours in the rest of the country.

We are in charge of the distribution but we have the support of other companies, especially in areas that are more remote from the center of the country, such as Baja California. Considering the complexity of distributing medicines, we prefer to have internal control of this process.

Working with telemedicine apps, we understand that some specialties adapt better to these services, such as pediatrics, which require frequent appointments, a close doctor-patient relationship and more follow-up consultations. On the other hand, meetings are much less frequent in neurosurgery and psychiatry. Our experience with PAAS allowed us to create a responsive stock to meet our clients’ needs.

We have a strong presence in Mexico City, Monterrey and Guadalajara but we are actively working in all states. In remote regions, there is a great deal of interaction with the website, even higher than in Mexico City, but most of our sales occur in the capital.

Q: What key alliances has PAAS consolidated to deliver a solid service?

A: Partnerships with pharmaceutical companies have propelled our services and established us in the market. Offering name brands is key for us because those are the medicines that are most sought after. PAAS has also built a valuable partnership with HealthX. Mexico is in the early stages of healthtech adoption, so market positioning for an entrepreneur is increasingly more demanding than in other sectors. HealthX seeks maturation of the healthtech ecosystem in Mexico to foment innovation and tech adoption at different levels. Through this alliance, we have connected with other companies that pair perfectly with what we do and offer. Thus we have been able to complement our offer and grow together because we are combining services, knowledge and experience. With HealthX, we are not each other’s competitors but allies on this entrepreneurial journey.

Pharmacy as a Service (PAAS) is an open pharmacy API platform that allows doctors, insurers, digital prescription providers or telemedicine apps to sell medicines nationwide.