PharmEasy might need to sell Thyrocare

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Editor's note: Just a few months ago, it looked like PharmEasy was well on the way to listing on the public markets at a valuation of over $5 billion. But with investors fast losing their appetite for technology stocks in recent months, the online drugs and medical services startup shelved its IPO in November. Now, some of the decisions it took in the run-up to the withdrawn public offer are beginning to bite. In particular, its acquisition of diagnostics chain Thyrocare in June 2021, which has become a millstone around its neck, threatening to thwart PharmEasy’s ambition to build India’s biggest pharmacy.  Nothing could be more ironic. Currently, Thyrocare is the best business in PharmEasy’s portfolio, which includes retail and B2B sales of pharmaceuticals, doctor consultations and diagnostic services. Only Thyrocare makes a profit; in 2020-21, it clocked Rs 152 crore. In the same year, API Holdings, PharmEasy’s parent, recorded operational losses of Rs 3,992 crore and posted a net loss of Rs 2,731 crore. PharmEasy acquired Thyrocare almost a year and a half after the COVID-19 pandemic struck, hoping that the …