Ali Health buys Internet-licensed drug company for $ 2.5 million

Alibaba Health Information Technology Ltd (Ali Health), a healthcare subsidiary of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, announced on Wednesday that it had purchased full ownership of Guangzhou Wuqiannian Medicine Co Ltd for 16.8 million yuan (2.5 million yuan). dollars), according to a techweb.com report. cn.

Guangzhou Wuqiannian Medicine, with registered capital of 5 million yuan ($ 748,000) and mainly engaged in the retail trade of traditional Chinese medicinal drugs and medicinal drinks and in the operation of retail pharmacy chains, holds the certificate of Internet drug transaction service qualification and is licensed to sell OTC products. drugs prescribed in relevant laws and regulations as well as a number of other online regulatory drugs.

The company suffered a full-year loss last year after achieving after-tax net profit of 1 million yuan ($ 160,000) in 2014, with pre-tax net profit of -355,000 yuan ($ 53,000) and net profit after tax. of -356,000 yuan ($ 53,000).

Ali Health says his purchase of the company may help him engage in online drug retailing to deliver more products and services to end consumers, according to a report from finance.sina.com.cn.

Relying on Alibaba’s advantages in e-commerce, big data and cloud computing, Ali Health is regarded as the market pioneer of online pharmacy services and O2O pharmacy. However, due to the cautious regulatory policy in China at present, the pharmacy e-commerce penetration rate in China is only 0.35%, according to a report by CIConsulting, a service company. advice.

CIConsulting predicts that the compound annual growth rate of China’s pharmacy e-commerce will reach 50% over the next five years, and the scale of the pharmacy e-commerce market is expected to reach 110 billion yuan by 2020.