• Aster Pharmacy signs first-of-its-kind partnership with an aggregator to enable prescription medicine delivery service
  • Customers can now upload their prescriptions on Talabat and have them delivered to their doorsteps in 90 minutes from Aster Pharmacy. OTC and other health and wellness orders from Aster Pharmacy will continue to be fulfilled within 30 minutes.   
  • The prescription delivery service has been launched in Dubai in the first phase with plans to extend to other emirates subsequently.

Dubai: Aster Pharmacy, the retail arm of Aster DM Healthcare and prominent pharmacy chain in the UAE, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with talabat UAE, online food delivery and q-commerce platform to enable prescription medicine purchases. Starting February 2023, talabat users will be able to upload their medical prescriptions securely and easily on the app to be sent to Aster Pharmacy and have them delivered by talabat within 90 minutes. Customers will also be able to purchase OTC medicines and Health and Wellness items from Aster Pharmacy with a delivery time of 30 minutes or less.

Dr. Marwan Al Mulla, CEO of Health Regulation at the DHA congratulated Aster Pharmacy and talabat on the launch of this pioneering initiative.

Dr. Al Mulla said: “Our aim in Dubai is to provide the highest quality of specialised and accessible health care to our community members, and at the same time, enhance their convenience and comfort. Dubai’s health sector has adopted the latest technologies across all aspects of healthcare from delivery to management. Through the use of technology, patients will be able to securely upload prescriptions and get the medicines delivered to their doorstep, a move that will add to their convenience and help ensure medication compliance.

“As more providers come onboard and provide this service, we will continue to enhance convenience for patients and their family members in Dubai. Our aim is to create a complete ecosystem of care that fully utilizes the latest technologies to enhance patient-centered care.”

Commenting on the partnership, Ms. Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, said, "In line with Dubai’s vision to maximize the value of healthcare services delivered by pursuing efficiency, appropriate allocation and utilization of resources, as well as Aster DM Healthcare’s mission to continue to improve accessibility to healthcare, we at Aster Pharmacy are delighted to partner with talabat to provide a first-of-a-kind prescription fulfillment service to talabat customers in the UAE. This partnership will offer users a quick and convenient way to obtain their prescription medicines in addition to the very best health and wellness products. Aster Pharmacy is driven by the purpose of making its health and wellness offerings easily available at the doorsteps of people in the UAE, and we look forward to the partnership with talabat to take another leap in this direction."

Tatiana Rahal, Managing Director at talabat UAE commented: “With the UAE continuously cementing its position as a tech hub on the world map and adopting innovation across all sectors, we’re proud to partner with Aster Pharmacy to support the government's efforts in the digitalisation of the health and wellness industry. This partnership enables talabat to provide the communities we operate in with accessibility to an even wider range of offerings that cater to their daily needs. Soon, patients will not only be able to order prescription medication through our platform, but even to schedule in advance their prescription medications on the talabat app.

She added: “At talabat, we are constantly exploring ways to be there for our customers, when they need us, where they need us.”

How it works:

  • talabat users upload their medical prescription, Emirates ID and insurance details through the app.
  • Pharmacists from Aster Pharmacy will contact them for any feedback on insurance approvals, counsel on dosage and consumption instructions, as well as answer any questions on the medicines.
  • The service will be available between 10 am to 10 pm in Dubai, during the first phase of the launch.

Confidentiality:

talabat  implemented a tech-backed system which ensures that  data uploaded as a part of the prescription medicine purchases is not visible to and does not reside within the talabat app. As the licensed healthcare provider, Aster Pharmacy’s systems will receive, review and process the uploaded documents.

Additionally, customers can contact Aster Pharmacy’s customer care or talabat customer service for inquiries around the clock about their orders.

Aster DM Healthcare, one of the largest integrated healthcare providers in GCC and India currently operates 446 pharmacies in India, GCC and Jordan, including 201 Pharmacies in India operated by Alfaone Retail Pharmacies Private Limited under brand license agreement. Originating in UAE, Aster Pharmacy has become a household name and has emerged as the brand of choice amongst pharmacies due to its ease of access and customer first approach. During the last financial year, Aster Pharmacy recorded 8 million visits across its units.

About Aster DM Healthcare

Aster DM Healthcare Limited is one of the largest private healthcare service providers operating in GCC and in India. With an inherent emphasis on clinical excellence, we are one of the few entities in the world with a strong presence across primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary healthcare through our 30 hospitals, 121 clinics, 459* pharmacies, 19 labs and 140 patient experience centers in seven countries, including India. We have over 28,400 plus dedicated staff including 3,622 doctors and 8,095 nurses across the geographies that we are present in, delivering a simple yet strong promise to our different stakeholders: “We’ll treat you well.” We reach out to all economic segments in the GCC states through our differentiated healthcare services across the “Aster”, “Medcare” and “Access” brands.

* Including 214 Pharmacies in India operated by Alfaone Retail Pharmacies Private Limited under brand license from Aster. 

About talabat

When you think of food delivery in the MENA region, we’d be pretty surprised if talabat didn’t pop into your mind first! Since delivering our first order in Kuwait in 2004, we’ve grown quite a lot over the past 18 years into the leading local tech platform in the region.

We deliver hundreds of millions of food orders, grocery items, over-the-counter pharmaceuticals and other products per year, to our customers in nine countries throughout the region. Our food delivery business works with well over 25,000 brands and almost 50,000 branches, while our q-commerce concept, talabat mart, now delivers groceries to customers in Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman Qatar, Iraq and the UAE,  in many cases,  in 20 minutes or less!

Our customers, our partners, our people, our riders, and the communities in which we operate are at the heart of what we do. In 2022 alone, we facilitated the donation of over 14 million dollars to trusted partner charities with the help of our customers across the region, an equivalent of over 2.4 million meals.  talabat is part of Delivery Hero, the global leader in online food delivery and q-commerce.