AUTHOR=Wei Heng , Liu Yueyang 

TITLE=Research on the selection of OTC drug supply chain sales models: based on medical insurance policy

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Public Health

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2025

YEAR=2025

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1484635

DOI=10.3389/fpubh.2025.1484635

ISSN=2296-2565

ABSTRACT=The COVID-19 pandemic has driven a shift toward online medication purchases, prompting major pharmaceutical manufacturers to adopt a dual-channel strategy to enhance competitiveness. This paper examines model selection and pricing challenges for pharmaceutical manufacturers in China’s OTC drug supply chain across different dual-channel models. Our findings indicate that: (1) medical insurance policies significantly enhance profits for pharmaceutical manufacturers and offline retailers; (2) an online direct-selling model yields the highest profit for manufacturers; and (3) increased consumer acceptance of online channels does not necessarily boost demand. Numerical analysis verifies these findings.