NEW DELHI :
Pharmaceutical sales in India grew by nearly 10% year-on-year in October to ₹13,542 crore due to growth across all therapy segments, barring respiratory drugs, according to data released by market research firm AIOCD-AWACS on Sunday.
Vitamins and chronic segments–cardiac care and anti-diabetic medicines–recorded robust growth rates of 22.6%, 19.5% and 9.7% respectively, and were largely the factors that led the growth, but it was the continuing recovery in anti-infective drugs and related acute therapy areas which stood out.
These segments, which are considered acute therapy drugs, were worst hit during the covid-19 lockdown due to lack of patient footfalls at doctors’ clinics and hospital out-patient departments. Even a few months after the lockdown, patient footfalls continued to be low as people were avoiding medical facilities amid the pandemic.
However, the growth of anti-infectives, one of the largest segments of medicines, in October is potentially a sign of patients coming to the medical facilities.
Anti-infective sales grew by 6.6% in October, with related therapy areas like gastrointestinal drugs and pain and analgesics recording growth of 13.6% and 2.8%.
Anti-infective and gastrointestinal drugs had recorded 1.4% and 5.5% increase in sales in the preceding month of September after five months of lockdown-related fall, while pain and analgesics were down 4.3% during the month.
While these segments are recovering, they are still not at pre-covid levels, Cipla chief financial officer Kedar Upadhye told Mint.
“I can’t say the patient visits have returned to pre-covid levels but what has happened is that telemedicine has gone up. Some therapy areas are still lower than what they were at pre-covid levels,” Upadhye said.
He cited the example of anti-infective drugs, which, while it is recovering, is not at pre-covid levels as overall infection rates are also lower due to greater sanitisation and hygiene.
Cipla is the market leader in respiratory drugs, and while the company recorded stellar sales growth in October, the overall respiratory segment was the odd one out among therapy areas, declining 6.6%. The fall was less steep than the 10.5% slump recorded in September.
Cipla’s sales growth during October was 22% at ₹703 crore, the highest among the top 10 drugmakers in India. Cipla’s gain is partially on account of having the largest portfolio of covid-19 treating drugs. It is the exclusive distributor of Roche’s Actemra, commonly called tocilizumab, in India, and also counts remdesivir and favipiravir among its products.
All the other top 10 pharmaceutical companies recorded a growth of 8-15% during the month.
Among the top 20 firms, the highest growth rate for the month was clocked by Glenmark Pharmaceuticals at nearly 23%, with sales of ₹352 crore. The company is the market-leader for favipiravir, through its brand FabiFlu, which has been the most prominent drug to treat mild covid-19 patients. Mildly symptomatic account for a majority of covid-19 patients.
Ipca Laboratories, the market leader of hydroxychloroquine in India, clocked sales of ₹215 crore, up 16% year-on-year.
