Despite pushback from pharmacies, 1001Pharmacies raises €8 Million to become an online European parapharmacy

eCommerce startup 1001Pharmacies has raised €8 MIllion from Newfund, CM-CIC Capital Privé, Xavier Niel, Olivier Mathiot & PKM, the startup announced this week. The new funds come after last August’s struggle with pharmacies led the startup to discontinuing its delivery service for prescription medicine, choosing to focus more on the parapharmaceuticals – their home page shows offers for products to make your skin smoother, protect it from the sun, or help your skin to tan.

Despite the facts that 1001Pharmacies may not be able to execute on their original vision of delivering pharmaceutical goods the same way Postmates delivers lunch, they’ve managed to build up a significant audience (1 Million UV/month in France alone) who trust them with their parapharmaceutical purchases.
I’m a big fan of 1001Pharmacies and their founders, Sabine Safi & Cedric O’Neill – however, the prospect of being an eCommerce site focused on skin products, as opposed to disrupting the medication industry by making it easier for patients to purchase medication and get it delivered to them in the event that they are unable to (something which is legal to do already in France today) is a bit underwhelming.
Still, if the first step has to be parapharmaceuticals in order to build up enough influence to be able to lobby the government for more Internet-friendly regulation around how prescription medicine can be delivered, then so be it.