Specialty pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare company Hyphens Pharma has officially opened Singapore’s first Health Sciences Authority-licensed digital pharmacy.
WHAT IT DOES
Hyphens Pharma operates through three business segments: Specialty Pharma, Private Label, and Medical Hypermarts and Digital. It has established its presence in major Southeast Asian countries including Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines. The group also operates a marketing and sales network covering 10 other markets in Asia Pacific.
His newest business, WellAway, managed by his digital venture DocMed, enables patients to receive e-prescriptions from qualified doctors and have their prescription medications delivered directly to them.
Since receiving an operating license in January last year, the online pharmacy has contracted over 100 clinics in the island city-state. Hyphens Pharma aims to add around 1,000 more clinics to the platform by the end of the year, a news report noted.
WellAway is currently offering limited-time free delivery of pharmaceutical products for doctors on its platform.
WHY IT MATTERS
According to a press statement, WellAway services are helpful for patients who are elderly, immobile, self-isolating and for those who simply prefer to reduce their outside contact during the ongoing pandemic.
An HSA-registered e-pharmacy is expected to send traceable digital scripts directly from clinics and protect patient data through cybersecurity measures. Trained pharmacists must also take over the running of the pharmacy, including the storage and dispensing of registered medicines. Aside from that, WellAway also added special handling for temperature-sensitive drugs.
Meanwhile, Hyphens Pharma is collaborating with pharma group Dienst Singapore to further develop its new e-pharmacy service.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
In recent months, a number of acquisitions have been made around the digital pharmacy scene in Asia Pacific. First, Indian e-commerce platform Flipkart has signed agreements to acquire a majority stake in an online pharmacy startup SastaSundar. Digital pharmacy PharmEasy, meanwhile, has acquired Aknamed, a cloud-based healthcare supply chain platform, as part of its move to diversify its healthcare business. In New Zealand, hospital group Green Cross Health has bought a quarter of the shares in digital pharmacy PillDrop.
ON THE RECORD
“I believe that digitalization is the future of the pharmaceutical industry and collaborating with WellAway certainly allows us to better serve the needs of our patients in the new digital age,” commented Florent De Kertanguy, General Manager ofServing Singapore.
