According to the WHO, andrological diseases are the third leading killer of men's health after cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and cancer.
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A few days ago, the #国产伟哥2023年销售近13亿#词条冲上微博热搜 sparked heated discussions among netizens. According to a number of media reports, the sales volume of sildenafil citrate tablets of a well-known pharmaceutical company will reach 101 million tablets in 2023, breaking through the 100 million mark and setting a new high. Men's health problems are becoming more and more prominent, and men's products with large market size and stable demand deserve the attention of pharmacies.
01
ED and PE drugs led the category growth
Zhongkang CMH shows that in the top 20 list of prescription drug sales in retail pharmacies in China in 2023, sildenafil is at the top of the list. Viagra and Jin Ge are also the "traffic kings" of pharmacies. Behind this phenomenon is the increasing prominence of men's health problems.
Data source: Zhongkang CMH
In Zhongkang Technology's "2022 China Consumer Health Insight Report", poor physical strength, poor energy, and sexual health are the three major health problems faced by men today. ED, PE and other issues are particularly prominent. According to the data disclosed by the Male Branch of the Chinese Medical Association, the overall prevalence of ED in mainland men is 26.1%, and the age is mainly between 30 and 50 years old, and the incidence trend increases significantly with age. Among them, the prevalence rate is as high as 40.2% in people over 40 years of age.
However, due to cultural background, lack of sex education and other reasons, the public and patients themselves often have a "stigma" about andrology diseases, and avoid medical treatment. Based on this, the sales of andrology drugs are mainly concentrated in the out-of-hospital retail channel.
According to Zhongkang CMH data, in 2023, the sales of urological drugs in offline retail pharmacies, which is commonly referred to as the entire andrology drug, will reach 13.5 billion yuan, with a considerable scale. From the perspective of sub-categories, the sales of ED and PE drugs will increase by 8.5% and 17.8% year-on-year respectively in 2023, with strong momentum.
According to the Zhongkanglinxi system, sildenafil is still the most mainstream drug for the treatment of sexual dysfunction. Taking the data of retail pharmacies nationwide in February 2024 as an example, sildenafil (generic name) accounted for 47.39% of the sales, followed by tadalafil (23.61%), dapoxetine (8.37%), Zhibao Sanwhip (6.61%), and Wuzi Yanzong (3.7%).
Data source: China Conglinxi Consumer Insight System
At the brand level, the top 5 sales in the same period were Viagra (18.01%), Jinge (15.09%), Zhibao Sanwhip Liquor (5.97%), Qianwei (5.23%) and Aitingjiu (4.31%).
The WHO has predicted that the number of people with erectile dysfunction in the world will be as high as 322 million in 2025, and the number of patients with premature ejaculation with erectile dysfunction will be as high as hundreds of millions, and it is expected that the number of people with premature ejaculation and erectile dysfunction will increase year by year.
02
Are patients moving online?
Due to patients' high requirements for emergency response, privacy, etc., the traffic of andrology drugs has exploded in e-commerce. During Jingdong's Double 11 in 2023, sexual health products rushed to the list, andrology specialty drugs exceeded one million sales in three minutes, and the family planning contraceptive category increased by more than 200% year-on-year during the whole period.
According to Zhongkang CMH data, in 2023, the growth rate of gender drugs in the O2O channel will be as high as 20.1%, of which andrology drugs will occupy 44% of the category share, but the scale growth rate will be as high as 30.2%. In the B2C channel, the growth rate of gender drugs is as high as 14.1%, and andrology drugs account for 68% of the share, and the scale growth rate is as high as 14.7%. It can be seen that andrology drugs have great market potential in new retail.
Drugs for both sexes include: urinary system drugs, contraceptives and obstetrics and gynecology drugs, only the drug market;
Data source: Zhongkang CMH, B2C includes Tmall + JD.com, O2O includes Meituan + Ele.me + JD Daojia, 70% of the sales volume of 70 cities direct delivery stores + national express store data, the proportion of direct delivery stores in 70 cities is 70 cities.
It is worth noting that in addition to the main ED and PE drugs, the growth of Chinese patent medicines for tonifying the kidney and strengthening yang is amazing. According to Zhongkang CMH data, in 2023, this sub-category will achieve a year-on-year growth of 96% and 44% in the B2C and O2O channels, respectively, and is a very potential product. Among them, the top 5 products with B2C incremental contribution are Tonifying the Kidney and Strengthening the Body, Wuzi Yanzong, Shubing the Liver and Yiyang, Compound Cistanche, and Yinyang Suo. It can be seen that most male consumers are willing to use "external force" intervention to choose mild products for long-term maintenance.
At the same time, the performance of pharmacies is somewhat tepid, and the scale of the men's drug market in offline pharmacies has not changed significantly in the context of the growth of the entire drug retail market and the eye-catching sales of online andrology.
03
There are many pharmacies that are not selling enough
"The uniqueness of the andrology category lies in the fact that many patients do not necessarily go to the hospital, but interact with pharmacies, e-commerce, and media to obtain treatment options for diseases, and most of the sales take place in pharmacies," said Chen Jialin, CEO of Menarini China, who shared a survey with First Pharmacy Caizhi, where 67% of patients said they "would like to know their symptoms", about 60% of patients said they wanted to know more even if their problems were solved, and some patients were not clear about their situation.
It can be seen that there are many health needs of andrology patients that need to be met by pharmacies. However, after visiting a number of pharmacies as a customer, the first pharmacy Caizhi found that the following problems of the clerks were very obvious: (1) lack of professionalism, except for the origin and effective time, they could not give effective information about the goods, (2) they would not take the initiative to associate sales, and (3) they had a perfunctory or evasive attitude, and did not ask for evidence or pay attention to them. In fact, for pharmacies with homogeneous stores, products, and activities, pharmacy professionalism is the more important competitiveness, the key to widening the gap with opponents, and it is difficult to be imitated.
Zhang Xijun, vice president of Yangtianhe Pharmacy Co., Ltd., said that to overcome inertia and not wait for customers to come to the door, one is to transfer public domain traffic to private domain traffic, and do accurate data analysis on the basis of VIP members;
In addition, the operation of the men's category needs to be driven by industry and commerce. Chen Jialin said that he has observed that many Internet celebrity doctors are not andrologists, and patients are actually very eager to be recommended by professionals, and the industry can advocate for better andrology disease education through multiple channels, and at the same time provide more high-quality and professional consulting services for the chain.
Some pharmacists also pointed out that the difficulty of the men's category lies in how the brand can make more people widely known, because consumers will not stay in the store too much, and the communication time between the two sides is very short. Sun Tao, deputy general manager of Taienkang, believes that the core of operating a brand is to find the positioning of the product, and the positioning cannot be changed at will after the positioning is accurate, and adhere to the long-term repeated publicity. The brand itself is a kind of traffic, and now is an era when traffic is very scarce, and the industry should think about how to make good use of this traffic, and how to empower pharmacies and drive store performance growth through brands.