From Peddling to Conquering the Pharmaceutical Retail Industry
Nowadays, every home is equipped with common over-the-counter drugs. Medicines for familiar illnesses such as headaches, common colds, cough and fever can be found in one’s own medicine cabinet for emergency purposes. Though self-medication is inadvisable as per doctors’ opinion, we conform to this practice because of its convenience and the fact that medical fees are quite expensive these days. Needless to say, we ensure that the medicines we purchase are up-to-date and safe. This is made possible today because of one man’s vision of bringing safe and affordable health-enhancing and life-saving medicines closer to the people of the Philippines. He had a dream, and now he has an empire.
Mariano Que started his career in a Manila drugstore in prewar Philippines. There he was acquainted with various medications, including the newly discovered sulfa drugs, invented by German chemist, Gerhard Domagk, in 1935. These sulfa drugs are considered to be the first effective drugs used to fight bacterial infection in humans. Indeed these drugs facilitated the cure for many illnesses that had been previously difficult to treat and had proven to be valuable in saving millions of lives around the world during World War II.
The end of WWII and the start of the American occupation brought about the need for a fresh launch in the country’s business perspective. Medicines were scarce and the immediate postwar period demonstrated the need for sulfa drugs. Que, realizing the opportunity, utilized his drugstore experience to start his own trade.
Que initially bought and sold medical vials and capsules. When he had produced enough savings, he took PHP 100 and bought a bottle of sulfathiazole tablets. He brought the sulfathiazole bottle to Manila’s busy Bambang market and sold the pills in single doses. The method of selling, known as “Tingi-tingi,” became extremely popular in the poverty-stricken Philippines, bringing life-saving medications within financial reach of many people than ever before.
He continued to invest his profits in purchasing more pills and selling them in single doses. Before long he had generated enough revenue to buy a pushcart, which he filled with an expanding assortment of pharmaceuticals. Amidst the existence of the pharmaceutical black market that sold fake or dangerous formulations, Que, managed to build a reputation for the quality and freshness of his products, and also for the fairness of his prices. Eventually, he had gathered a steady clientele, and in March 1, 1945, Que opened his first store. Que named it after Mercury, the messenger of the gods in Roman mythology and whose staff, the caduceus, is sometimes used as a symbol of medicine.
The drugstore continued its practice of selling bulk items by piece. Aside from this, Que continued to introduce innovations to the Philippine drugstore industry. In 1948, he started the first motorized customer delivery service for swifter delivery times. 1963 saw the opening of the first-ever self-service drugstore in the country. Then, in 1965, to meet the increasing demands of his clients, he expanded the opening schedule to 24 hours per day, 7 days a week. Come 1969, the company became the first to introduce biological refrigerators in its stores. This permitted the company to assure the quality of its life-saving medicines.
Indeed, what started as a business in a pushcart in that long ago busy Bambang market had grown into a network of close to 700 company-owned and franchised stores all over the country.
The country’s largest drugstore chain is now being handled by Que’s daughter, Vivian Que Azcona who ranked 13th in the Forbes’ list of Philippines Richest 40 2008 list with a networth of $360 million.
For further readings, check out:
Mercury Drug Corporation History
Mercury Drug
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