State Pharmaceutical Corp. mulls own direct-to-home drug delivery

State Pharmaceutical Corporation (SPC) of Sri Lanka, the State-owned manufacturer and distributor of pharmaceutical drugs is planning to set up its own drug delivery network covering the entire island after the reasonably successful experiment during the corona pandemic where drugs were delivered to door step after receiving prescriptions via Viber and Whatsapp.

SPC is currently assessing the viability of setting up centres in at least 21 districts where prescriptions can be received from general public before being dispatched to specific residences and other locations.

However, logistics remain a key consideration before launching the service as delivery of drugs require suitable temperature and other conditions which do not affect the drug’s quality during delivery.

Hence, authorities are looking at how the delivery could be installed with minifreezers or similar arrangements which do not expose the drugs to temperature and preserve their quality upon dispatched till they reach point of delivery.

The mandatory requirement for quality preservation of drugs and the need for freezers have prevented SPC from entering into a collaboration with an already established delivery service.

To this end, SPC has already called for applications from those who like to become delivery agents attached to the Corporation, referring to the post as, ‘e-agents’, who will be paid a 5 percent commission from the value of each transaction of delivery of prescription, on top of the delivery fee.

The selected e-agents will be provided with training by SPC and the application is already uploaded to the SPC website which can be downloaded by those who are interested in joining.

During coronavirus, SPC collaborated with Sri Lanka Post to deliver pharmaceutical drugs to households to dissuade the sick and other people from visiting pharmacies and also to ensure seamless access to drugs during curfews. The orders were accepted via Viber and Whatsapp.

However, after a few months with the easing of restrictions on movement of people and gradual opening of pharmacies, the joint effort was abandoned.

Besides delivery, SPC is also working towards expanding its store footprint via establishing 100 drug stores within retail outlets of Sathosa and Co-op Supermarkets spread across the island.

SPC currently has only 44 Rajya Osu Sala outlets, confined only to the main cities in the island.