New Delhi: Sales in the Indian pharmaceutical market grew 7.2 per cent on year to Rs 91.31 billion in December on account of strong growth in sales of anti-diabetic and cardiac medicines, data from market research firm AIOCD-AWACS showed.
“Without anti-diabetic and cardiac markets the IPM (Indian pharmaceutical market) growth would have been 5.8 per cent,” a release from the market research firm said, reports Cogencis. Sales of medicines for chronic and sub-chronic illnesses grew at 9.9 per cent and 10.8 per cent, respectively, while that for acute diseases grew just 3.3 per cent. The slow pace of growth in medicines for acute illnesses was on account of 1.5 per cent fall in volume.
In the October-December quarter, sales growth in the market slowed to 10.3 per cent as against 14.1 per cent last year as price growth was the lowest in six quarters at 1.6 per cent. Price component of the sales growth has been continuously falling since April, led by a 10.4 per cent slump in the same for essential drugs.
The National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority had mandated pharmaceutical companies to cut prices of essential drugs by nearly 3 per cent this fiscal from 2015-16 (April-March). For December, sales of drugs in the national list of essential medicines declined 9 per cent, while those of non-essential medicines grew 9.8 per cent. The fall in sales of essential medicines was largely on account of a 10.4 per cent decline in prices from last year, even as volume grew by 1 per cent. For non-essential medicines, prices rose by 4.3 per cent, while volume was up 1.5 per cent.
The largest multinational pharmaceutical group in India, Abbott, saw a 12.2 per cent growth in sales for the reported month to Rs 5.89 billion as its anti-diabetic drug Mixtard continued to lead overall sales with Rs 430 million in sales.
Other multinational companies, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals recorded sales of Rs 2.8 billion, down 5.3 per cent, while those of Pfizer India also declined 3.2 per cent to Rs 2.4 billion. However, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries continued to lead the overall market with a near 9 per cent share. Sales of the Dilip Shanghvi-led company in December grew 9.5 per cent to Rs 7.96 billion.
Domestic pharmaceutical companies recorded a 7.4 per cent growth in sales at Rs 71.24 billion, while multinationals saw a 6.6 per cent growth in sales to Rs 20.08 billion.
Among domestic manufacturers, Cipla’s sales grew 2.8 per cent to Rs 4.5 billion, while Alkem Laboratories clocked Rs 3.1 billion, up 8 per cent on year. Lupin garnered sales of Rs 3.1 billion, up 5.4 per cent, while Glenmark Pharmaceuticals’ sales grew 5.9 per cent to Rs 2.3 billion. Wockhardt clocked sales of Rs 1.3 billion, up 18.7 per cent.
On the other hand, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories’ sales for the month declined 2.7 per cent to Rs 2.2 billion; those of Cadila Healthcare clocked Rs 590 million rupees, largely flat on year.
