Over 2,000 stores across the country, generation of nearly 10,000 jobs, and a company having 500 crores of valuation with world’s top investors as partners; everything at the age of 21 years.
No, it's not a rags to riches story from any bollywood film but a real life tale of 21-year-old desi entrepreneur, Arjun Deshpande, who is a founder and CEO of Generic Adhaar.
Generic Adhaar CEO Arjun Deshpande
While establishing a new ecosystem in the traditional Indian pharmaceutical market, his company aims at solving two persisting problems - accessibility and affordability of medicines. Generic Adhaar, which was started in 2018 when Arjun was 16-year-old, provides high-quality generic medicines directly to end customers by eliminating the chain of intermediaries such as marketers, distributors, and stockists. This helps them in cutting down costs significantly and providing medicines at up to 80-90 percent discounts.
For instance diabetes drug Glimipiride, which normally retails for Rs 110 per strip, is available a little over Rs 5 through Generic Adhaar, whereas anti-allergen Levocetrizine, which usually retails for Rs 55, is available for under Rs 6 per strip. The list is long.
Within two years of its inception, this pharma startup was expanding across the cities. During this time, Arjun’s first TED talk had gone viral and in no time it captured the attention of renowned business tycoon Mr. Ratan Tata. Impressed by Generic Adhaar's innovative model, he expressed interest in investing in the venture. Since then, Tata has partnered with the company and is helping them reach the last mile of the country.
Arjun Deshpande with former chairman of Tata Sons Ratan Tata “Our vision is not to expand just in urban areas, but also in 3-tier cities or the rural part of the country”, says Deshpande. He believes that the real India starts 40 kilometres away from cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore.
Recently they opened a franchise in Bihar’s Kusheshwar Asthan, a village that had only one doctor, one pharmacy, and one hospital for more than 10,000 people.
Company has also signed deals with the ruling dispensation of Uttar Pradesh to open nearly 700 stores in government hospitals. Similarly in Maharashtra, they are in talks with the government to set up stores at state’s Aapla Dawakhana initiative which aims at making healthcare affordable for all.
While reaching out to the roots, the company is also going beyond borders and expanding its international footprints. In neighbouring countries of India such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, UAE, Myanmar, etc., they have opened their franchises.
“We will be shortly opening our stores in Dubai, Oman, Cambodia, and in Vietnam as well”, mentions Deshpande.
After making medicines for human beings affordable, now Generic Adhaar is also entering into the veterinary space. Arjun believes that this step will reduce financial stress of the farmers. They opened their first veterinary store in Andhra Pradesh.
Picture of a veterinary shop In 2022, the company raised funding in a pre-Series A round from Beyond Next Ventures, a leading Japanese venture capital firm in the deep tech and healthcare space. Today, it sells more than 12 lakh plus medicinal strips per month.
As the demand for generic drugs continues to rise, the Indian generic drug market is estimated to reach $130 billion by 2030. The global generic drug market is projected to go beyond $500 billion by 2030.
Hopefully soon we will see the day when medicine affordability will not be an issue for the citizens of our country.
First Published: Jun 2, 2023 4:47 PM IST
