Domestic Pharma Sales Log Double-Digit Growth After Two Months Of Decline

India’s pharmaceutical sales grew in double digits in February on the back of therapeutic drugs after falling for two straight months.

Pharma sales grew 12.1 percent year-on-year in February to Rs 12,073 crore, according to data released by AIOCD AWACS—a pharmaceutical market research firm. The industry had grown 7.7 percent in January and 9.9 percent in February 2019.

Eight of the top 10 therapies grew over 10 percent led by respiratory, anti-infective and cardiac therapies, the research firm said, adding it would be little too early to say if the growth in anti-Infectives is due to the widespread fear of Covid-19.

While volumes grew at 3.8 percent during the month, growth in prices stood at 5.4 percent and newly launched drugs clocked a 2.9 percent growth. That compares with an average volume growth of 1.7 percent in the last 12 months, price growth of 5.6 percent and new product growth of 2.3 percent.

Key Highlights For February 2020

• Acute, which accounts for 47 percent of the Indian pharma market, is growing at 9.6 percent.
• Chronic, which accounts for 33 percent of the Indian pharma market, is growing at 10.5 percent.
• Sub-chronic, which accounts for 20 percent of the Indian pharma market, is growing at 8.6 percent.
• MNCs grew at 7.6 percent during the month compared to 13.2 percent growth for Indian companies.
• Therapy-wise growth: Stomatologicals grew at 15.9 percent, followed by blood-related at 15.3 percent, urology at 14.1 percent, sex-stimulants at 13.8 percent, respiratory at 11.5 percent, cardiac and anti-diabetic at 11 percent each and hormones at 10.1 percent.

Here’s how pharma companies fared:

• Among the top 50 pharma companies, 37 firms exhibited double-digit growth with an average of 16.84 percent.
• Two of the top 50 pharma companies saw contraction in February.
• Among the top 10 pharma companies, Macleods Pharmaceuticals Ltd. grew at 21.41 percent in February, followed by Mankind Pharma Ltd. at 19.06 percent. Abbott India Ltd. was the only firm that grew less than 10 percent.
• Among the companies ranked between 11 and 20, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Ltd. was the only company which grew less than 10 percent while Aristo Pharmaceuticals Pvt. Ltd. grew at 25.44 percent, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories Ltd. grew at 21.41 percent and Micro Labs Ltd. grew at 18.02 percent.
• Boehringer Ingelheim grew the most among multinantional drugmakers, at 24.74 percent, followed by Eli Lilly at 22.8 percent.