Venda de remédios nos marketplaces fica mais perto. Qual o impacto nas farmácias?

The Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency (Anvisa) recently revoked all provisional resolutions and measures that prohibited online marketplaces such as Shoppe, Rappi, iFood, Mercado Livre, and Americanas from selling medications. This action is in line with the new law 15.357, which allows supermarkets to have pharmacies in their stores and enables pharmacies to use digital channels and e-commerce platforms for logistics and delivery.

The Anvisa's decision to revoke these measures comes as the law has become more aligned with the new legislation, but they have not yet granted automatic authorization for pharmaceutical commercialization. According to an industry executive, this is merely a "administrative step" and not the final release of the regulation, which is expected to come out this year.

The potential impact of this development on the pharmaceutical sector has already been considered by some analysts. Luiz Guanais, an analyst at BTG, sees the Anvisa's announcement as the removal of regulatory uncertainty surrounding the marketplace model. However, he does not see a "fundamental change in who can sell medications" since the law still puts pharmacies at the center of the transaction.

Guanais believes that the competitive advantage of large pharmacy chains lies in factors beyond physical proximity, such as qualified traffic, product depth, inventory availability, and service level, which are areas where established omnichannel networks have structural advantages.

Guanais emphasizes that the marketplaces iFood and Mercado Livre continue to rely on their pharmacy partners for product assortment, inventory precision, and fulfillment quality, unlike food delivery platforms. He notes that pharmaceutical purchases require specific molecules, dosages, brands, or presentations, making the availability of each SKU and product quality much more critical.

Independent smaller networks may have geographic reach through partnerships with platforms like iFood, but they cannot replicate the wide assortment, deep inventory, scale of purchases, data volume, and standardized service of the larger networks.

Abrafarma's president, Sergio Mena Barreto, highlighted the digital transformation of the pharmaceutical sector in recent years, with sales increasing from R$ 1 billion pre-pandemic to R$ 27 billion today. He stated that with such technological infrastructure and logistics solutions already in place, the entry of marketplaces does not significantly alter the game.

However, Barreto expressed concerns about the potential impact of marketplace sales on pharmacy availability in remote regions of the country. In the United States, a phenomenon called "pharmacy desertification" has occurred, where physical pharmacies become scarce, often in poorer and more remote areas, leading to health issues.

Barreto believes that large pharmacy chains will likely be the primary users of marketplaces, as they possess the necessary inventory, sales capacity, and working capital. If marketplaces begin supplying remote small towns with the stock of large chains, there is a risk of exacerbating the problem and causing pharmacy desertification in these regions.