The Hanoi Department of Health has just issued a decision to revoke the certificates of eligibility for pharmaceutical business from 66 establishments in the area. The reason for the recall, according to the document, is because ” the establishments have applied for the cessation of pharmaceutical business activities“.

Among these 66 establishments, there are two drug wholesalers, namely Open Pharma Trading Joint Stock Company (granted a certificate of eligibility for pharmacy business in August 2019) and DS-BIO Vaccines and Biologicals Joint Stock Company (was granted a certificate of eligibility for pharmacy business in August 2019) granted a certificate of eligibility for the pharmaceutical industry in September 2021.

The remaining establishments all operate in the form of pharmacies/drugstores and have been granted certificates of eligibility for pharmacy business in the period of 2019 – 2021. Prominent among them are 5 Pharmacy pharmacies belonging to Pharmacity Pharmaceutical JSC. – The Hanoi branch.

Expressly, Pharmacity pharmacy number 514 (address at 134 Duong Van Be, Hai Ba Trung, was granted a certificate of eligibility for pharmacy business in October 2020); Pharmacity pharmacy No. 704 at CT1 building, housing project in Hoang Mai district; Pharmacity pharmacy No. 932 at 34 Tran Dien (Hoang Mai) and Pharmacity pharmacy No. 842 at No. 78 Khuong Trung (Thanh Xuan) – both granted certificates in November 2021; and Pharmacity pharmacy No. 757 at No. 173 Vinh Hung (Hoang Mai), licensed in July 2021.

Established in 2011, Pharmacity is one of three major drugstore chains in Vietnam, next to Mobile World’s An Khang pharmacy chain (MWG) and FPT Retail’s Long Chau pharmacy chain (FRT).

Currently, Pharmacity has 1,093 GPP-certified pharmacies operating nationwide. This pharmacy chain aims to open 5,000 stores by 2025, with a revenue of 1.5 billion USD.

Pharmacity’s process of ‘expanding’ the pharmaceutical retail market has been accelerated since 2019, after this pharmacy chain received a financial support commitment from Mekong Enterprise Fund III – a member fund of Mekong Capital.

Local media later said that Pharmacity had successfully raised $ 31.8 million (equivalent to VND 730 billion) in a Series C funding round. Also in 2019, Pharmacity successfully raised VND 150 billion in bonds.

Pharmacity’s business activities have achieved many impressive results with the mobilized capital. Specifically, in 2019, Pharmacity recorded revenue of VND 966.5 billion, an increase of 7.87 times compared to VND 123.2 billion in 2016.

However, this pharmaceutical company continuously reported losses. Particularly in 2019, Pharmacity reported a loss after tax of 265.7 billion dongs. In the first half of 2020, Pharmacity continued to report an after-tax loss of 194.2 billion dongs.

In 2021, Pharmacity said that the company’s revenue reached VND 3,567 billion, double that of 2020. This business also revealed that it started to be profitable from July 2021, according to the EBITDA index (earnings before tax, interest, and depreciation).

Recently, Pharmacity appointed Ms. Tran Tue Tri to hold the position of General Director. Ms. Tri was introduced with more than 25 years of experience in the retail and consumer sectors, having held many senior positions at Samsung, P&G, and Unilever both in Vietnam and abroad.

Before that, in mid-August 2022, founder and CEO Christopher Randy Stroud (Chris Blank) was no longer the legal representative of Pharmacity. Replacing this position is Mr. Nguyen Nhu Nam – an employee who is said to be an investment manager of SK Group.

Source: CafeBiz