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COVID Drives the Opening of 3,000 Pharmacies

By Marcos Pascual - Association of Pharmacies of Mexico (ANAFARMEX)
Commercial Director

STORY INLINE POST

Marcos Pascual By Marcos Pascual | Director General - Wed, 10/06/2021 - 14:52

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COVID’s arrival in Mexico and the subsequent need for medications is driving a national expansion of the country’s pharmacy network that will lead to 3,000 new points of sale and generate a new wave of medicine demand by the end of 2021. For the Association of Pharmacies of Mexico (ANAFARMEX), that means an expansion of 20 percent in coverage and an increase in market share.

We foresee an important increase in our sector, which is made up of traditional pharmacies or independent pharmacies. ANAFARMEX groups nearly 15,000 pharmacies. A 20 percent increase in new pharmacies would bring our total members to 18,000 pharmacies around the country.

New businessmen are turning to the pharmacy sector and soon, we will see new trademarks and even health service providers appending pharmacies.

Our statistics suggest that Mexico City, State of Mexico, Jalisco and Nuevo Leon will concentrate 40 percent of the pharmacies in the country. The other 28 states still need new sales points.

Importantly, we haven’t seen any pharmacy closures. On the contrary, across our membership, we are opening new ones in many zones, such as Chihuahua, Sonora, Veracruz, State of Mexico and Campeche.

The network of private pharmacies in the country constitutes a universe of 40,000 points of sale that include all the corporates, self-services and independent pharmacies.

Recently, ANAFARMEX and our specialized website entered an agreement with the Kellogg’s company to promote the consumption of cereals and food with nutritional value. These will be available to our consumers, such as kids who are going back to school and who will need healthy food with fewer calories. This is part of the social function of the independent pharmacies.

In Mexico, the distribution of medicine by big distributors offers the possibility to replenish inventories in any part of the country. These companies come to the more secluded places in the national territory. Today, there is an opportunity for distributors and independent pharmacies to grow and empower medicine access and supply to the private market.

For us, the perfect binomial means drug store-adjacent medical offices.

Photo by:   Marcos Pascual

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