PCD stands for Propaganda Cum Distribution which is a famous term in the pharmaceutical industry. A PCD generally refers to a franchise of a pharmaceutical manufacturing company. This pharma company provides drugs and medicines at a very low margin to the PCD franchise in bulk amount. The PCD franchise then sells, promotes, and distributes the pharma products to the doctors, pharmacists, or chemists who are authorized to generate prescriptions. In other words, a PCD franchise helps in the marketing of pharma products.
A PCD pharma franchise receives the products from the pharma company at considerably low rates and this is what acts as the main attraction point towards this business. However, there are many factors that play a key role in the running of a PCD pharma franchise business. The pharma chain includes the stockist, the retailer, the wholesaler other than the pharma company, and the PCD franchise owner.
As lucrative as the business sounds, the PCD pharma franchise business requires some serious thoughts and consideration. A lot of research and some experience is a prerequisite before starting a pharma franchise or PCD. Nevertheless, after making the right choices or decisions and taking all necessary precautions, you can reap the benefits of this wonderful business which can be built with a little investment and some amount of hard work and skills. This article will provide you a step by step guide if you wish to start your own pharma franchise or PCD.
The first things that you will need to start your PCD pharma franchise are- a drug license, a GST number, and a stocking facility. To procure all of these of your own would cost you around 1 lakh rupees. You may avoid this investment if you are new in this field and wish to start with low investment and slowly move your way up to establish a fully own pharma franchise business. To avoid this investment, you need to find a stockist who will rent you his or her drug license and GST number. All your bills will be generated in his or her name and he or she will be aware of the rate at which you are buying the drugs and medicines and their rates at which you are selling them to the retailer. This is why you should be very careful while choosing a person to be your stockist.
The next step would be to select the products with which you would want to start your pharma franchise or PCD. you need to do a survey or research to find out the pharma products with the highest demand in your area. This research can be online or offline but to find the most accurate results you should combine the findings of the researches via both mediums. One other criterion that can be considered is what kind of drugs are not easily available in your area that has a high selling rate in the surrounding areas.
After this comes the selection of the pharma company whose franchise you are going to avail. It is also one of the most important factors that will play a decisive role throughout the course of the running of your business. In a business like that of the PCD pharma franchise, the name sells before the product, and hence the reputation of the company in the market is something that cannot be ignored or underestimated in any circumstance. One very effective way to judge the credibility and reputation of a pharma company in the market is to check the turnover of the company. This will also help you to judge the market reach of the company.
Though not the most important but a very crucial aspect that will eventually affect the PCD business is the quality of the product. Once you are successful in creating your network and establishing your chain of business, what would help run your business smoothly is the effectiveness of your drugs and medicines. But it is not always possible for a PCD pharma franchise owner to evaluate the effectiveness of medicine properly. It takes deep technical knowledge and accurate information on the manufacturing process to tell if the drug will actually work or not. Unless you are a professional with that sort of classified information, it is not possible for you to judge the medicine perfectly. However, you can easily judge the finishing and outer appearance of the product that will give a fair idea of how minutely the company works in manufacturing.
Before selecting a pharma company, you must ask for a sample from all the pharma companies that you are considering. You should not consider a pharma company that refuses to send a sample. many of the companies provide the sample for free but you may be required to pay for some of them. That is not a big deal if you are getting good quality products from that company. When the sample arrives, you should check for the hardness offer tablets and also the packaging as it is the packaging that will form the first impression on both the doctors and the customers.
Now, when you are done with all the necessary arrangements to start your PCD pharma franchise like this stockist products etc, you need to have a proper promotion strategy planned out before you venture into this business full-fledged. This means other products will not sell on their own and you need to create your chain of supply. You need to build your contact with the doctors and organize certain programs to grab the public eye. This implies that you must have great communication and promotion skills to stand in this market of cut-throat competition.
To run the business smoothly for a long time, branding of your products is most important. You should plan promotional activities like free sample distribution and organizing pharma related conventions where leading Doctors of your area are invited.
Building doctor relations before you start your business is a very good step you should do regular visits to the doctors. You should also have a focus list comprising of 5-6 leading Doctors of your area whom you send occasional small gifts and reminder cards. This relationship building is an investment that may not give profits instantly but once you are successful in convincing the doctors, The prescriptions generated will take your business from ground to sky.
We hope that this article was helpful in starting your own PCD pharma franchise. Wish you luck and prosperity.