Bringing Pharmaceuticals Overseas! A Thorough Explanation of Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare’s Cross-Border EC Structure

Have you ever heard of OTC drugs?Nowadays, Japanese OTC drugs are becoming very popular overseas.Cross-border EC” is the sale of Japanese products to foreign countries via the Internet. The demand for this service has been increasing for several years, and now the market size of cross-border EC is high in many countries around the world.

Among them, products made in Japan “Made in Japan” are very popular among overseas customers because of their high quality and safety and security, and products made in Japan are selling like hotcakes, especially in China and the United States.

Until now, the main products traded have been foodstuffs, daily necessities, and apparel items, but recently, products in the “OTC drug” genre have begun to be sold overseas.

Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare in the spotlight for overseas sales of pharmaceuticals

Green capsules in front of orange pharmacy bottles

Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare Company Limited, a well-known pharmaceutical company in Japan, is attracting attention as a Japanese company selling OTC drugs overseas.

It used to be said that selling pharmaceuticals overseas was very difficult due to the many hurdles to sales, such as the need to obtain several certifications, the time and cost involved, etc. Why has it only recently become possible to sell pharmaceuticals?

In this article, we will introduce Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare, a company that sells OTC drugs through cross-border EC to overseas customers, in detail, including how it works and what products it sells through cross-border EC.

Information on Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare’s management company

Medicine pills on blue background

Before introducing the structure of Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare’s cross-border e-commerce, we will first introduce information on Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare’s management company.

Company Name Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare Co.
Location 3-14-10 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Date of Establishment December 16, 2005
Name of Representative Katsuhiko Yoshida
capital stock 100 million yen
Net sales 67.2 billion yen
Business Manufacture and sale of pharmaceuticals, quasi-drugs, cosmetics, medical devices, foods, drinking water, etc.

Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare is a company that sells well-known products such as “Loxonin S Premium,” “Lulu,” and “Gaster 10.

With capital of 100 million yen and sales of 67.2 billion yen, Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare is one of the most financially powerful pharmaceutical companies. In addition to selling pharmaceuticals as described above, the company also sells cosmetics and food products, and manufactures and sells medical devices, and its business is diverse.

Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare is well known in Japan, with many female celebrities as image characters and a great deal of media exposure on TV and in magazines, but how exactly does the company conduct cross-border EC?

Below is an introduction to the cross-border e-commerce system conducted by Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare.

How Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare’s cross-border EC works

Senior woman using mobile phone, ordering medicine pills online at home

Having introduced information on Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare’s management company, we will now introduce how Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare’s cross-border EC works.

Based in China.

In August 2020, Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare opened the Daiichi Sankyo Overseas Flagship Store on T-Mall Global, the e-commerce platform of Alibaba Group.This is the third store the Daiichi Sankyo Group has opened overseas, following the overseas flagship store for Minon, a brand of body care products, and the Daiichi Sankyo overseas flagship store offering oral care products.

Cross-border EC is now a growing market worldwide, and China’s cross-border EC is particularly active, boasting the world’s largest market by a country mile.

T-Mall Global” boasts the top market share in China, with a domestic market share of over 60%, and is expected to attract a high number of customers.

T-Mall Global, operated by Alibaba Group, is a popular e-commerce mall where you can always buy high quality Japanese-made products with no fake products in circulation, and many Japanese companies have opened stores outside of pharmaceuticals.

However, to begin with, opening an overseas branch of a pharmaceutical company is said to be very difficult and has been avoided until now, partly because of the need to obtain several certifications, as mentioned above, and partly because of the time and expense involved.

This is where the “cross-border EC” method introduced here comes in.

Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare’s sales method, which adopts the “bonded area model” of cross-border EC, has solved the time and cost problems that had previously been viewed as problematic, and has made it possible to sell overseas with less risk because the certification process has been simplified compared to previous methods.

What is the “Bonded Area Model”?

Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare has improved the problems of selling medical expenses overseas, such as certification, time, and cost, by adopting the “bonded area model” of cross-border EC.

Normally, when selling Japanese goods to China, it is a matter of course to transport the goods from Japan to China and bear the associated costs, as well as customs duties when crossing the border. In addition, the products are subject to strict safety and practicality checks before they can be sold, and only after approval can they be sold.

On the other hand, in the bonded area model of cross-border EC, a warehouse is set up in a bonded area in China, where goods shipped from Japan are stored, and as soon as an order is placed on the EC site, the goods are shipped from the warehouse in the bonded area, not from Japan.

In bonded areas, goods can be stored in China but not yet subject to customs duties and other taxes at that time, and can be transported in bulk and stored, thus reducing export costs and the time between receipt of an order and delivery to the customer. This has the advantage of reducing export costs and shortening the time between receipt of an order and delivery to the customer.

In addition, Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare actively hires Chinese employees and decides what products to sell while constantly researching what kind of products Chinese people are looking for, such as “What kind of medicines did you take as a child?

What is an OTC drug?

Two pharmacists working in a drugstore.

Having introduced the structure of Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare’s cross-border EC, we will now introduce OTC drugs.

Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare sells products in the “OTC drug” genre to China through cross-border EC.

Meaning of OTC drugs

OTC drugs are an acronym for “over the counter,” meaning that the drugs are sold in a counter-style store.

There are two main types of pharmaceuticals: OTC drugs, which we will introduce here, and ethical drugs. Ethical drugs are literally used for medical purposes and are mainly prescribed by doctors.

Medicines other than those prescribed by a physician, i.e., those available at pharmacies, drugstores, and convenience stores, are called OTC drugs.

OTC drugs were called “over-the-counter drugs” or “regular drugs” until a few years ago, but now the name has been changed to OTC drugs, and the name is gradually becoming more common.

OTC drugs sold by Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare

 

medicine

Finally, we will introduce OTC drugs sold by Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare, which have become popular not only in Japan but also in China. If you are considering cross-border EC of OTC drugs in China, please check it out.

Lulu A Gold DX

Lulu A Gold DX” is Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare’s most famous OTC drug, and while Lulu has been a long-selling product in Japan since its launch in 1951, it is actually extremely popular in China as well.

Home remedies” like Lulu, which relieve various cold symptoms, have become popular products everywhere in the world.

GASTAR 10

After Lulu, Gaster 10 is the next most famous OTC drug sold by Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare.

Gaster 10, which controls stomach acid secretion, is effective for stomach pain, heartburn, and upset stomach, and is popular with those who prefer oily foods and drink alcohol.

transino

An OTC drug sold by Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare is a product called Transino. Transino is a drug for treating skin blemishes from both inside and outside the body, and is a popular product among women with a lineup that includes several types of oral medications and cosmetics.

As in Japan, Chinese women are enthusiastic about beauty and tend to favor Japanese-made beauty products.

summary

We introduced Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare’s cross-border EC system and OTC drugs in detail.

Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare is a pioneer in overseas sales of pharmaceuticals, having made possible the sale of pharmaceuticals, which was previously considered difficult, by adopting the mechanism of the bonded zone model of cross-border EC.

We continue to conduct local research and other activities, and we will keep a close eye on the future of Daiichi Sankyo Healthcare’s cross-border e-commerce activities.

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