PharmEasy is an Indian e-pharmacy company that sells medicines, diagnostics and telehealth online.

History

The company was founded in 2015 by Dharmil Sheth and Dhaval Shah in

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

with the initial seed funding provided by their parents. The company wanted to expand beyond the Mumbai market and received their Series A funding. In May 2021, PharmEasy acquired rival e-pharmacy company Medlife for an undisclosed amount. In June 2021, the company acquired a 66.1% stake in diagnostics chain Thyrocare for . In September 2021, it acquired a majority stake in Aknamed, a healthcare supply chain company. In November 2021, the company filed papers to launch its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

(IPO) of . The company withdrew its IPO plans in August 2022.

Competition

PharmEasy competes with other e-pharmacy companies including Netmeds (which was acquired by

Reliance Industries Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate headquartered in Mumbai. Its businesses include energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, entertainment, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles. Reliance is the ...

), 1mg (acquired by

Tata Group The Tata Group () is an Indian multinational conglomerate group of companies headquartered in Mumbai. Established in 1868, it is India's largest business conglomerate, with products and services in over 160 countries, and operations in 100 c ...

), Apollo 24x7 and Amazon Pharmacy. The Ken questioned the company's positioning as a unified healthtech player and referred to the company's story as "more confusing than convincing".

Criticism

Medlife–PharmEasy merger protests

In 2020, PharmEasy and Medlife were in merger talks which came to the attention of the

Competition Commission of India The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is the chief national competition regulator in India. It is a statutory body within the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and is responsible for enforcing the Competition Act, 2002 to promote competition a ...

(CCI), which approves such mergers. The merger was protested by The South Chemist and Distributors Association (SCDA), who objected that sales of medicines online was illegal in India. The online sales of medicines was later regulated and the merger was completed in 2021.

PharmEasy advertisement

Members of the

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

religion criticized one of the company's advertisements and said that religious sentiments were hurt for the sake of marketing and sales. The advertisement in question showed Lakshman being struck and

Ram Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

needing Sanjeevani, asking who will bring the medicine from such a long distance. Two PharmEasy employees arrive by scooter to deliver it.{{Cite web, last=www.ETBrandEquity.com, title=2019 in review: When brands courted controversy on social media - ET BrandEquity, url=https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/digital/2019-in-review-when-brands-courted-controversy-on-social-media/72976619, access-date=2021-11-06, website=ETBrandEquity.com, language=en

References