Jayomi Lokuliyana, the Founder and Director of Mymed International (Pvt) Ltd speaks of the creation and purpose of one of Sri Lanka’s leading digital pharmaceutical platforms – Mymed.lk.
Sri Lanka is fast adapting to the e-commerce market. This growth has been accelerated by the prevailing COVID-19 pandemic, when people from various industries recognized the integral role of technology. Sri Lanka still has huge potential in this space and if you look at industries like Retail, Apparel and Electronics, they’re all booming in the e-commerce space. However, with regards to the Pharmaceutical industry, there was a very visible void. The fact that pharmaceuticals is significantly under-represented in the digital space was one of the reasons behind the creation of Mymed.lk about 2 ½ years ago.
The aim was to create a comprehensive platform aggregating Sri Lanka’s brick and mortar pharmacies, so that they could reach out to a larger audience in order to cater to their medical and healthcare needs. We have successfully aggregated over 75 LMC certified pharmacies via the Mymed platform with the value proposition of being the opportunity to cater to a new market segment and deliver convenience to their existing customers. After all, at the end of the day everyone is seeking convenience.
One of the biggest issues we saw people face when it came to purchasing prescribed medications was that they often have to travel to a couple of different pharmacies in order to find all the medication listed in their prescriptions. Thus, we looked into a solution, which is now an integral part of the Mymed service and guarantees the fulfillment of all of a customer’s medication requirements. As we are talking about people’s health, we only work with LMC certified pharmacists, who verify every prescription uploaded on Mymed and ensure that the required medicine is delivered from the pharmacy closest to the customer’s location. Apart from medication, people also seek fulfillment of their nutritional needs, which can be fulfilled via Mymed.
Another area that we’re looking into is improving our Last Mile delivery service. So that even in the event of an acute disease one can receive medication on time. In Sri Lanka, we have a large ageing population and many parents live apart from their adult children who are, in most cases, their primary caregivers. In this light, taking care of one’s parents and their medical needs can be streamlined and conducted in a more organized manner through the Mymed platform as customers have access to our prescription refillment facilities. One can also subscribe for the nutritional needs facility to ensure that one’s parents and other family members receive proper medical and wellness care in a timely manner.
A Mymed customer can meet all his/her medical needs with the simple click from the comfort of their own home. We have a large number of overseas customers who utilize Mymed to ensure that their parents, who are living in Sri Lanka, receive all of their medical and wellness necessities.
In this time of the Coronavirus the Mymed team has been looking into our delivery facilities in order to ensure that our customers, the majority of whom are senior citizens, receive their medication safely and on time at their doorstep. Thus, in compliance with safety regulations Mymed International became the world’s first Covid Controlled Environment Certified entity by Sri Lanka’s standard institute. This instills greater confidence in our customers and takes away a great degree of risk by preventing customers from visiting pharmacies and putting themselves at risk of contracting the virus.
The pandemic has caused great distress across many segments. We do not want our customer to compromise with regards to their health requirements due to decreased income capacities. Thus, we came up with ‘Mymed Suwa Pranama’, which provides a 10% discount on all prescribed medication for all senior citizens of the country. We believe that this will provide a degree of relief to our customers and ensure that the most medically vulnerable members of our clientele are able to fulfill their medical requirements in the time of Covid.
The primary purpose of Mymed is to provide a holistic healthcare platform with services ranging from health management to online consultations. We aim to be Sri Lanka’s number one healthcare portal, providing wider access to a range of medical services through one window. We believe that this will help to take Sri Lanka’s healthcare market to the next level.