Pharmacies and Healthcare Stores Global Market Report 2021: COVID-19 Impact and Recovery to 2030

Executive Summary

Major companies in the pharmacies and healthcare stores market include MedPlus; Medzone; Medicap; Apollo Pharmacy and Discount Drug Stores.

The global pharmacies and healthcare stores market is expected to grow from $1004.83 billion in 2020 to $1060.07 billion in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.5%. The growth is mainly due to the companies rearranging their operations and recovering from the COVID-19 impact, which had earlier led to restrictive containment measures involving social distancing, remote working, and the closure of commercial activities that resulted in operational challenges. The market is expected to reach $1307.05 billion in 2025 at a CAGR of 5%.

The pharmacies and healthcare stores market consists of sales of pharmaceuticals and healthcare products by entities (organizations, sole traders and partnerships) that sell pharmaceuticals and healthcare products such as drugs, medical devices, and other personal care products through pharmacies and other health and personal care stores. The pharmacies and healthcare stores market is segmented into pharmacies and drug stores and other health and personal care stores.

North America was the largest region in the global pharmacies and healthcare stores market, accounting for 33% of the market in 2020. Asia Pacific was the second largest region accounting for 27% of the global pharmacies and healthcare stores market. Africa was the smallest region in the global pharmacies and healthcare stores market.

Pharmacies are increasingly using medicine vending machines to service customers especially in remote locations where they cannot invest in opening an establishment and stationing pharmacists. Medicine vending machine is equipped with a phone, internet connection, a prescription scanner, in-built POS machine and up to 2,000 packs of commonly used prescription drugs. The machine identifies drugs with the help of microchip attached on the packs. The vending machine also allows patients to discuss with a pharmacist via video link. The pharmacist checks the prescription and authorizes the transaction and then the patients can pay either by inserting cash into the machine or through a debit or credit card. Once the payment is confirmed, the medicines can be collected from drop box of the machine. For instance, PharmaTrust, a Canadian company has developed vending machines and has installed them in the UK. Patients go up to the PharmaTrust kiosk, insert their prescription, scan their health card, then pick up the phone and talk personally to an on-call pharmacist. The pharmacist determines if the medication is appropriate and then authorizes the transaction. Arizona State University and Florida State University installed pharmaceutical vending machines to dispense a wide range of drugs in their Student Health Services buildings.

The outbreak of Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has acted as a massive restraint on the pharmacies and healthcare stores market in 2020 as supply chains were disrupted due to trade restrictions and consumption declined due to lockdowns imposed by governments globally. COVID 19 is an infectious disease with flu-like symptoms including fever, cough, and difficulty in breathing. The virus was first identified in 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei province of the People’s Republic of China and spread globally including Western Europe, North America and Asia. Steps by national governments to contain the transmission have resulted in decline in manufacture and trade of non-essential goods and an overall decline in economic activity with countries entering a state of 'lock down' and the outbreak is expected to continue to have a negative impact on businesses throughout 2020 and into 2021. However, it is expected that the pharmacies and healthcare stores market will recover from the shock across the forecast period as it is a 'black swan' event and not related to ongoing or fundamental weaknesses in the market or the global economy.

The pharmacies and healthcare stores market is expected to benefit from steady economic growth forecasted for many developed and developing countries. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts that the global GDP growth will be 3.3% in 2020 and 3.4% in 2021. Recovering commodity prices, after a decline in the historic period is further expected to be a significant factor driving economic growth. The US economy is expected to register stable growth during the forecast period. Additionally, emerging markets are expected to continue to grow slightly faster than the developed markets in the forecast period. Greater economic growth is likely to drive public and private investments, joint ventures, foreign direct investments in the end-user markets, thereby driving the market during forecast period.

Companies Mentioned

A selection of companies mentioned in this report includes:

• MedPlus
• Medzone
• Medicap
• Apollo Pharmacy
• Discount Drug Stores

Methodology