SwipeRx’s Ambition to Digitize the Indonesian Pharmaceutical Industry

SwipeRx, a rebrand of mClinica Pharmacy Solutions, said it will build the largest digital pharmacy network after securing a series B funding of $27 million in equity and loans led by MDI Ventures at the end of last month.

The company will be more aggressive in working on the market and building a pharmacist community that has not been fully explored so far.

In a virtual press conference held today (21/6), Director of SwipeRx Indonesia Oscar Ronald explained that this ambition will be achieved by building warehouses in a number of big cities to facilitate the distribution of supply chains of pharmaceutical products to pharmacist networks in the regions.

Bandung and Surabaya are two cities that the company will soon visit this year along with other cities.

“We want to build warehouses nationally in several cities, carry out massive recruitment. The goal is that we can reach independent pharmacies that have been managing their operations independently so that they can get pharmaceutical products with good guarantees,” said Oscar.

At the same time, the company will recruit more new talents and seek partnerships from various agencies in the pharmaceutical industry to build a comprehensive ecosystem. SwipeRx aims to attract 16,000 pharmacy partners as users by the end of this year.

This figure has doubled from the current position of 8 thousand partners spread throughout Indonesia. Of this figure, about 5 thousand of them have used the features of procurement of drug supplies and pharmacy needs.

Oscar believes that this target will be achieved because it is claimed that business growth in Indonesia is quite stable with the addition of 4 thousand-5 thousand pharmacist partners each year. With the strategy that has been adjusted, he believes the number can be achieved.

SwipeRx Solution

SwipeRx has two products, namely SwipeRx Shopping and SwipeRx Community. This first product is an e-commerce platform for shopping for pharmaceutical products that has been provided by SwipeRx.

Pharmacists can make procurement without having to leave their workplace. The goods will be delivered from the warehouse by utilizing the partnership of third party logistics.

If the pharmacist’s location is in the Jabodetabek area and the order is placed before 11 pm, the ordered goods will arrive on the same day (same day delivery).

If it is after 11 a.m. it will be directed to delivery the next day. Meanwhile, for pharmacists outside Java, the delivery duration is slightly longer, which is a maximum of two days.

In addition, SwipeRx also provides credit financing facilities for pharmacies who want to increase their procurement. Then, for the second product, SwipeRx Community is more aimed at building a community among pharmacists throughout Indonesia.

SwipeRx Indonesia Marketing Director Imanuel Hutagalung added, this pharmacist community is something unique in Southeast Asia because no one has worked on it yet.

The platform can be used by pharmacists to increase their capabilities to learn from each other and educate about medicines.

Future Plans

In the future, this community platform will continue to improve its activities so that pharmacists can receive the added value offered in a sustainable manner. One of the things that is being prepared is collaborating with professional pharmaceutical institutions in Indonesia.

“Branding pharmacies in the past and now is very different. This pharmacist community platform is the most developed in SwipeRx because it doesn’t exist in Southeast Asia yet,” said Imanuel.

The two SwipeRx products above are designed to solve the digitalization issue in the pharmaceutical world. According to research conducted by the company, more than 80% of pharmacies in ASEAN are private, they are fragmented and stand alone, not connected to each other, and their operations are still manual.

Headquartered in Singapore, SwipeRx does not only operate in Indonesia, but also enters five other Southeast Asian countries, namely the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, and Cambodia.

In total, the SwipeRx network has been attended by 235,000 professional pharmacists and 45 thousand pharmacies. As for the SwipeRx Indonesia team, it has been supported by 300 people.