India’s smaller towns are growing as far as demand for medicines goes – thanks to the post-pandemic health awareness, proliferation of chemists, coverage of government health schemes like Ayushman Bharat, and pharma companies warming up to this segment.
"Every year around 450,000 pharmacists pass out, and of them around 40,000-45,000 become chemists who start their own shops," says Rajiv Singhal, general secretary of the All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD), an umbrella organisation representing 1.2 million chemists in the country.
“Chemists are going to smaller towns, and more pincodes in the hinterland. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, there would not be any village or town with at least 1,000-2,000 population that does not have a chemist shop,” Singhal says. He adds that during the post the Covid-19 pandemic, they have seen that people are more regular with their prescriptions and more aware of t
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