Cosway Pharmacy aims to be biggest retail pharmacy player

                             

KUALA LUMPUR: Cosway (M) Sdn Bhd continues to expand its network in Malaysia with a plan to open 200 Cosway Pharmacy retail stores nationwide in the next one year, thus making it the biggest retail pharmacy player in Malaysia.

To date the company has established 100 pharmacy stores across the country and its goal is to strengthen its network to 1,000 stores within a five-year period.

Cosway is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Berjaya Corp Bhd.

Cosway managing director Al Chuah said on average the company invested close to RM150,000 per store, adding that the cost might vary depending on the conditions.

“The new pharmacy stores will involve incorporation within existing Cosway stores and a private-owned pharmacies as well as a completely new Cosway Pharmacy store,” he said after the launch of the Cosway Pharmacy 100th store yesterday.

For the 100th store, Chuah said it was converted from a local-owned pharmacy and Cosway had invested RM120,000 to renovate it.

On average, a Cosway Pharmacy has the potential to make record sales of between RM80,000 and RM90,000 per month.

                                 

When asked on the company's strategy to compete with other retail pharmacy players, Chuah said one of its strategies was its wide range of products offered.

He said Cosway had more than 2,000 consumer products with an average of about 10 new products introduced per month.

“As part of our strategies to compete with other players, we also have the Berjaya rewards card and at the moment we are collaborating withMaxis to create a medical device to measure the glucose level in our blood system,” Chuah said.

A representative from Cosway said the collaboration would be announced latest by end-March this year.

                         

Cosway Pharmacy has been selected under the ministry's liberalisation of attachment trainings for pharmacist. With the programme, pharmacists who fulfil the attachment under Cosway have a chance to be awarded a free store. The pharmacy store is referred to as a free store, whereby Cosway bears the rental, utilities and also supplies products on consignment.

The company also targets to tap the Philippine market this year.

“Our model to penetrate this market is via direct selling and working with local pharmacy owners by renting spaces to sell our products. We are going to focus on customers that are interested in beauty and health products,” Chuah said.

Source: 

http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2013%2F2%2F25%2Fbusiness%2F12755849&sec=business

100th Cosway Pharmacy outlet launched by Health Minister

PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry is considering providing incentives to encourage the private sector to set up community pharmacies in rural areas.

Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said such incentives was necessary to overcome a shortage of pharmacies in rural areas.

"The Ministry views the situation (lack of pharmacies in rural areas) seriously as many such pharmacies are only mushrooming in the city and concentrated in certain regions," he told reporters after opening the 100th Cosway Pharmacy outlet in Damansara, near here, on Sunday.

Liow in his speech text that was read by the Health Ministry's Pharmaceutical services division senior director Datuk Eisah A Rahman, said according to the ministry's statistics, there were 10,006 registered pharmacies and 1,834 community pharmacies throughout the country.

The concentration of community pharmacies is in Selangor (where there are 433 pharmacies), Penang (213), Kuala Lumpur (201) and Johor (157).

Realising the lack of pharmacies in rural areas and the inequitable distribution, the Health Ministry was looking into a zoning system to distribute pharmacies accordingly in urban and rural areas so that the people would not be deprived of such facilities, Liow said.

To ensure an equitable distribution of pharmacies in the country, the ministry and the Malaysian Pharmacy Association had developed the Malaysian Healthcare Providers Mapping Service.

Currently, the ratio of pharmacists to the population in Malaysia is 1:2,947 people and by 2016 it is expected to reach the optimum ratio of 1:2,000 people set by the World Health Organisation. 

Source: Star Online

Happy Chinese New Year 2013

                               

                                Wishing all our readers Happy Chinese New Year, a great year ahead~

Right Step towards Dispensing Separation in Malaysia

Malaysian Society for Quality in Health (MSQH)

(ROS 470)

What is DIspensing Seperation- kindly visit, http://www.mcp.org.my/dispensing.html

The public and healthcare related professional bodies are invited to give their comments on the draft MSQH Standards for the Accreditation of Community Pharmacies which can be downloaded from the listed websites below starting from 15th January 2013 until 14th February 2013.

Standards 1: Organisation & Management

Standards 2: Human Resource Development & Management

Standards 3: Policies & Procedures

Standards 4:  Facilities & Equipment

Standards 5: Safety & Quality Improvement Activities

All comments must include the sender’s name, designation and / or the name of the organisation and must reach the MSQH secretariat not later than 15th February 2013.  All comments and enquiries may be forwarded by e-mail to the MSQH secretariat at pharmacy@msqh.com.my or delivered to:

Malaysian Society for Quality in Health (MSQH)

B.6-1, Level 6, Menara Wisma Sejarah, 230 Jalan Tun Razak, 50400, Kuala Lumpur

Telephone      : +603 2681 2232

Fax                   : +603 2681 3199

Assoc. Prof. Dr. M.A. Kadar Marikar

CEO, Malaysian Society for Quality in Health

And,

Chairman, Accreditation Committee

E-mail: kadar@msqh.com.my

List of Websites: 

1.     Malaysian Society for Quality in Health (MSQH) www.msqh.com.my

2.     Pharmacy Board Malaysia       www.pharmacy.gov.my

3.     Ministry of Health, Malaysia (MOH) www.moh.gov.my

4.     Malaysian Pharmaceutical Society  www.mps.org.my

With Dispensing Seperation, Community Pharmacy as a whole may stand to have an extra edge. 

>> Click here for the Standards for Accreditation of Community Pharmacy