General Range PCD Franchise for Physicians

If you are starting out as a pharma distributor, a general range is usually the safest first step. You do not depend on one kind of specialist. You can visit the GP down the road, the physician at the private clinic near the district hospital and every chemist in the main market, and have something to offer each of them. A general range PCD franchise gives you that spread from day one.

The risk is buying too much of the wrong thing. New distributors often accept a company's full list, then find half of it still sitting in the godown when the expiry notice comes. Most of what follows is about avoiding that mistake.

Fast movers to start with

Pick products that almost every GP writes and every chemist keeps, across a handful of therapies:

• Antibiotics: amoxicillin-clavulanate, cefixime, azithromycin and ofloxacin-ornidazole.
• Pain and fever: paracetamol, aceclofenac with paracetamol, and a diclofenac gel.
• Gastro: pantoprazole, pantoprazole with domperidone, an antacid syrup and ORS.
• Cough, cold and allergy: cetirizine, levocetirizine with montelukast, and one or two cough syrups.
• Vitamins: a multivitamin capsule, calcium with vitamin D3 and a B-complex syrup.

Twenty-five to forty well-chosen products are plenty for a start. You can always add later. Taking less at first is far cheaper than clearing what you should not have taken.

Wide range or deep range

A wide range means one or two products in many therapies. A deep range means several strengths and combinations within fewer therapies. In a small town where most of your calls are on GPs, wide works better in the beginning. Each GP writes across conditions in a single OPD, and you want a product in front of him for most of them.

Deep starts to make sense once you know which therapy your doctors write most, or if your area has specialists you want to target. A practical approach many distributors follow is to start wide, track which items move in the first two or three months, and then go deeper in the two or three therapies that sell best. Ask the company whether it will let you add products to your list later without a fresh minimum order.

Covering GPs and chemists in a small town

In a small town, one MR can usually cover most GPs and the main chemist lane in a week. Visit doctors with a visual aid and samples, then go straight to the chemists near those clinics and make sure your stock is there. A prescription the chemist cannot fill turns into another company's sale. Some chemists will also buy fast movers directly on margin, which helps clear stock while prescriptions build.

When you compare companies, look at PTR and MRP on the common products, because chemists in a small market know every competing rate. Then check the minimum first order, district monopoly, dispatch time, credit terms, promotional inputs and how often new products are launched. Each company profile here shows its product list, and the licence-checked badge shows its licence details were checked.

How to keep dead stock away

Keep your first two or three orders small. Check the expiry date on every consignment you receive and ask the company what minimum shelf life it guarantees on dispatch. Get the expiry and breakage return policy in writing: how close to expiry they accept returns, and whether they replace stock or issue a credit note. Every month, note which products have not moved in sixty days and stop reordering them. Do not take a product only because it comes with a scheme.

When you are ready, fill in the requirement form on this page. Write that you need a general range PCD franchise, your district, the first order you have in mind and when you want to start. It is free, your number is not published, and only companies that match your range and area will call you.

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