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By Perry Gil S. Mallari
2005, when Roberto “Bobby”
Lim launched Med Express, the pioneer delivery service drugstore in
the country, a lot of his friends made dire predictions on the
outcome of his venture. “You will be out of the business fast,”
they said. His colleagues’ contention was that his idea of
delivering medicines fast, safe and cheap right at the doorstep of a
client was problematical. “The people won’t buy it because they
can easily procure medications from roadside drugstores without
fuss,” they cautioned. But Lim held fast to his belief.
Today, with the recent opening of
the 12th Med Express branch at the plush Power Plant Mall in Makati,
Lim has proven the naysayers wrong. But a closer look will reveal
that the success of Med Express lies beyond mere business savvy but
on its founder’s belief that people’s welfare should come first
before profit.
The danger of self-medication
A man of few words, Lim intones
that he has been enjoying success in the pharmaceutical business for
quite a while and putting up Med Express is his way of giving back.
He laments of the lackadaisical way medicines are sold in many
drugstores in the country today, “The way they’re selling
medicines now is backward and unprofessional, nothing much has
changed for the past 60 to 80 years.”
To drive home his point, Lim
narrates of a tragic anecdote about a close family friend whose
untimely passing was caused by such malpractice. “The father of a
friend of mine was prescribed by his doctor with an oral antifungal
for the itchy skin infection on his foot. The itchy sores dried up
in three days and the old man was impressed.” Having witnessed the
efficacy of the drug, Lim relates that the patient decided to buy
extra supply of the medicine from a drugstore and pop a prophylactic
dose every time his foot itches. The process continued for a while.
“And then one day we learned that the old man was rushed to the
hospital and was diagnosed of kidney failure. He died after two
days,” Lim recalls with sadness.
He remembers that the doctors and
the family of the man were perplexed by the cause of death because
the patient has no history of kidney ailment. Then, one relative of
the deceased, who happened to be the chief pharmacist of one of the
leading hospitals in the country, inquired on the medications that
the patient was taking shortly before his death.
When presented with the medicines
that the man was ingesting before his demise, the pharmacist
identified the oral antifungal as the culprit. She explained that a
patient couldn’t take the drug beyond two weeks without medical
supervision.
Lim took a brief pause then asks,
“If you were the old man, would you do the same? Of course. You
were initially healed by the medicine and on your next purchase, the
roadside drugstore pharmacist, whether due to incompetence or
indifference, did not warn you of the dangers of taking it without
medical supervision.” Another sad thing about the mishap, he says,
is that the pharmacy where the drug was bought did not issue any
proof of transaction. Thus, it cannot be held accountable for the
tragedy.
Safety first and foremost
It is the mission of Med Express
to prevent such tragedies from happening. Currently, the company is
offering three free professional pharmacy services unavailable in
any drugstore in the country: medication counseling, compilation of
a customer’s confidential medication history and a medication
compliance program.
Lim relates that Med Express
boasts of its own call center with all stations manned by licensed
pharmacists. A customer calling the company to order his medications
will be advised on the nature of the drug he’s buying as well as
its possible negative interaction with other medicines. A client is
usually given the following pointers: what condition to expect, what
to avoid while taking the medication, what the medicine is for and
how to take the medicine. If the client is buying a prescription or
regulated drug, he will be requested first to fax his prescription
or provide the telephone number of his physician for verification.
The next two services of Med
Express require voluntary involvement from the customer. The
compilation of a person’s medication history is very important,
Lim stresses, because wrong interactions of medicines could trigger
fatal medical conditions. Customers who avail of this service will
have their medication purchase history recorded by Med Express. This
could be analyzed by the pharmacist attending the order for possible
untoward drug interaction or by the patient’s doctor himself. Lim
emphasizes that if a situation calls for it, Med Express can fax the
patient’s medication history right to a hospital’s emergency
room.
Med Express’ medication
compliance program is commendable for its personal touch. Its goal
is to monitor a patient’s medication regimen and educate him on
the importance of medication compliance. Med Express customers
enlisted in this program will receive an automated reminder via
mobile phone text message three days before he runs out of
medication. To ensure that the client receives the warning, another
text message will be sent one day before the patient’s supply of
medicine will be depleted. If the client ignores such reminders, Med
Express will initiate a personal intervention a day after the last
text warning was sent by calling the patient. Lim points out that
they see this as an opportunity to educate their patrons on the
importance of medication compliance.
Convenient, complete and cheap
People who need their medicine
fast can call Med Express at 634-3333 for the delivery and
drive-thru pick-up of their orders. A customer call is automatically
routed to the nearest branch where the call was made. Equipped with
cutting- edge e-commerce technology, Med Express accepts payment via
credit card, a life-saving factor in cases when patients who ran out
of cash need to get their medicine fast.
Med Express charges no delivery
fee for orders P1,000 and above (a minimum order should amount to
P250). For orders below P1,000, it charges a minimal fee of P50, a
paltry amount considering the hassles of driving to and elbowing
yourself through the crowd lining the counter of a regular
drugstore. Currently, it’s aiming to offer a complete line of
drugstore items from vaccines to infant diapers. With all the
bonuses it’s giving to customers, the biggest surprise about Med
Express is that its medicines are cheaper than what is found in
other drugstores. “We make it a point to make it easier on the
customers’ pocket whenever we can,” Lim emphasizes.
Med Express today already has
stations in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Lim reveals that the
immediate goal is for the company to have presence in all key cities
nationwide. His team is always looking for new ideas on how to serve
their clients better. For example, the latest Med Express outlet at
Rockwell is the very first of its kind that combines a drugstore,
medical laboratory and doctor’s clinic.
Lim, expounding on the serious
nature of his business, states that buying medicines is very
different from buying a shirt or a pair of shoes: “In the latter
you can return it and have it replaced if it didn’t fit. But if
you bought and took the wrong drug, a harm was inflicted on your
body.”
With the success the company is
now experiencing, Lim believes that all the hard work and resources
he poured into the business in the last three years are beginning to
pay off. “What we have in our heart is to provide Filipinos with a
better way of buying their medicines. I hope the public will support
what we’re doing so this can continue,” he concludes.
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