How BuyMed has built one of the strongest Supply Chain Moats in Vietnam's Pharmaceutical Industry—and Beyond

More than seven years ago, BuyMed’s warehouse was no bigger than 50 square meters.

From a 50sqm Warehouse to a Defensible Supply Chain Moat

I still remember the energy in those early days when Genesia Ventures had just invested. Founder & CEO Nguyen Huu Minh Hoang spoke with excitement—not about scale, fundraising, or valuations—but about something far more fundamental: how to make warehouse operations less error-prone, more disciplined, and truly fit for healthcare.

One of the first “innovations” was simple on the surface: investing in a QR code system to manage pharmaceutical products accurately, ensuring every unit was tracked, verified, and handled correctly. It didn’t look like a moat back then. It looked like obsession with the basics.

Today, visiting one of BuyMed’s largest fulfillment centers spanning 15,000 m² in Ho Chi Minh City, processing millions of SKUs and hundreds of thousands of orders every month, it is clear that those early decisions laid the foundation for one of the most defensible supply chain moats in Vietnam’s healthcare ecosystem.

The Anatomy of BuyMed’s Supply Chain Moat

BuyMed’s advantage was not built overnight, nor through a single breakthrough. It was built by systematically solving bottlenecks, one by one, as complexity increased.

At the core lies demand aggregation at scale. By connecting tens of thousands of pharmacies, clinics, and hospitals on a single digital platform, BuyMed aggregates fragmented demand into meaningful volume. This creates strong negotiation leverage with manufacturers and distributors, enabling better pricing, more reliable supply, and tighter coordination.

But aggregation alone is not enough. What truly differentiates BuyMed is how deeply technology is integrated into operations.

Over the years, BuyMed has quietly developed a suite of internally built management systems—from QR-based product tracking and warehouse management systems (WMS), to dashboards measuring employee productivity and order accuracy. These systems are not off-the-shelf tools; they are purpose-built, refined through real operational pain, and continuously improved as scale increases.

When a warehouse handles millions of products, every inefficiency compounds. BuyMed turned that complexity into a barrier—something extremely difficult for competitors to replicate without years of iteration and operational learning.

Solving the Big Bottlenecks—One by One

BuyMed’s journey is a case study in disciplined execution:

• Digitizing pharmacy ordering: moving the entire ordering process online, reducing friction, errors, and delays

• QR-based pharmaceutical product management: ensuring traceability, accuracy, and compliance in a highly sensitive industry

• Just-in-time fulfillment: redesigning the supply chain to minimize inventory while maintaining high service levels

The results are striking. According to BuyMed’s CEO, the company consistently maintains inventory days of less than one week, compared to an industry average of around three months for traditional pharmaceutical distributors.

This is not just an operational metric—it reflects deeply embedded technology and a fundamentally different way of thinking about distribution.

Lower inventory days mean: Less capital locked up; Lower risk of expiry and damage; Reduced hidden losses that traditional distributors often accept as unavoidable

Those “saved losses” don’t disappear—they are converted into higher margins, better pricing for customers, and greater operational resilience.

Just-In-Time as a North Star

“Just In Time” is a familiar concept in modern operations, often summarized as: the right product, in the right quantity, at the right place, at the right time.

For BuyMed, this principle defines its North Star Metric: minimize inventory holding time—ultimately moving toward zero inventory.

To achieve this, BuyMed works closely with suppliers to replenish stock only when orders are confirmed, and accurately forecast demand based on real-time data.

At the same time, the company relentlessly optimizes last-mile delivery, shortening the time from inbound to outbound. Every hour saved in the warehouse strengthens cash flow, improves reliability, and compounds efficiency across the system.

This is not easy work. It requires trust with suppliers, discipline in forecasting, and constant operational refinement. But over time, it creates a flywheel that competitors struggle to catch up with.

From Vietnam to Southeast Asia: A Repeatable Playbook

What truly validates BuyMed’s supply chain moat is not only its depth—but its repeatability.

Starting in 2022, BuyMed successfully duplicated this operational playbook into Thailand and Cambodia. The same principles—demand aggregation, QR-based product management, internally built systems, and just-in-time fulfillment—were adapted to new regulatory environments, supplier networks, and customer behaviors.

This was not simple geographic expansion. It was proof that BuyMed’s moat is systemic, not local.

Today, BuyMed has established the largest pharmaceutical distribution network by transaction volume in Southeast Asia, not just Vietnam. That scale, powered by disciplined execution rather than brute force, has transformed BuyMed from a national distributor into a regional healthcare infrastructure company.

Value Created Across the Entire Ecosystem

As a central node in the healthcare supply chain, BuyMed creates value for all stakeholders:

• Pharmacies order more easily, receive products faster, enjoy 5–10% better pricing, and face fewer stock-outs

• Distributors and manufacturers expand market access while cutting sales and logistics costs by up to 50%

• New pharmaceutical manufacturers can launch products faster through a fully digital channel, replacing slow, manual distribution processes

• Consumers, ultimately, gain access to more affordable medicines

When the system works better, everyone benefits.

The Quiet Power of Living Bold—and Staying True

What makes BuyMed’s journey especially meaningful is not just scale, but intent.

From a 50sqm warehouse to a regional platform operating across Southeast Asia, BuyMed has stayed true to its original mission: fixing a broken healthcare supply chain through technology, discipline, and empathy for the people it serves. At the same time, it has been bold enough to imagine a fundamentally better system—and patient enough to build it step by step.

Supply chain moats are not built through slogans. They are built through years of quiet execution, invisible decisions, and an unwavering commitment to doing things right.

And if BuyMed’s story teaches us anything, it is this:

The strongest moats are often built long before the world starts paying attention—and by the time it does, they are already far ahead.