Medical portal to debut on sickly market
Computer systems integrator ComputerLand and drug wholesaler Polska Grupa Farmaceutyczna (PGF) announced last Thursday their intention to start a medical portal called Clinika.pl that would provide online pharmaceutical sales and medical-related information.
ComputerLand and PGF will each hold a 48% stake in Clinika.pl with the remaining shares in the hands of the new company's management. The two companies intend to invest a total of zl. 23 million ($5.1 million) in the project with a zl. 6 million ($1.3 million) injection this year, said Marek Jedrzejczyk, one of Clinika.pl's board members. Brokerage Dom Maklerski BMT initiated and mediated the deal.
Jacek Szwajcowski, the president of PGF, said the large-scale distribution of pharmaceuticals requires advanced information technology systems. PGF is the largest drug distributor in Poland, and controls a 22-23% market share, according to the company. PGF said that it chose ComputerLand as a partner because the firm has experience providing information technology services to the healthcare sector, and particularly with Poland's Kasy Chorych, or Patients' Funds, where ComputerLand has computerized the healthcare insurance systems for Poles in some voivodships.
Clinika.pl will offer an online distribution center for pharmaceutical sales and purchases and sell drugstore software. It also will feature medical-related news for both general practitioners and patients and permit doctors to monitor the health of their patients. The portal will earn money through sales commissions on pharmaceuticals, software sales and online advertisements, Jedrzejczyk said. In addition, all users will be required to pay for some information.
Clinika.pl will be aimed at about 230,000 medical professionals, including doctors, pharmacists, and various medical institutions and pharmaceutical distribution centers. Company officials at Clinika.pl hope that one in three medical professionals and patients will log on to the portal by 2003.
According to information cited by Clinica.pl, Poland's volume of pharmaceutical sales is expected to reach $2 billion this year. Jedrzejczyk said that Clinika.pl's operations are based on the American healthcare portal WebMD (http://www.webmd.com), which generated $104 million in revenue last year and $60 million in the first quarter of 2000.
But Dorota Ubysz, a Warsaw-based information technology analyst at SG Securities (London), said that Clinika.pl's management should take a closer look at the financial performance of medical-related web sites. "If you look at the values of medical portals in the U.S., there are no commercial applications (for them), and their stock prices are now in the toilet," she said, citing the specific examples of Drugstore.com, DrKoop.com and HealthGate.com.
Furthermore, Ubysz said, there is no need for another healthcare portal in Poland since six other companies and joint ventures also have announced their intentions to launch medical-related web sites. Clinika.pl would likely be a flop with consumers, she added, since most patients still prefer seeing their physicians face-to-face instead of receiving online diagnoses. But Ubysz said Clinika.pl's online drug distribution system could work as planned in a few years, although the logistics would be complex.
