Domestic Drug Market Growth Slows Top 4.5% In January, Some Therapies Drag

After a robust growth in December, the domestic pharma market crawled back to a slower growth trend in January. Dragged by some therapy areas, the Indian pharmaceutical market (IPM) posted a 4.5 per cent growth in January as against an 8.5 per cent growth in December.

Cardiac therapy registered a monthly growth of 8.8 per cent in January compared to 14.9 per cent in December, showed data from market research firm AIOCD AWACS. Anti-diabetic, on the other hand, posted a growth of 5.3 per cent in January as against a 9.9 per cent growth in December. Both the above are chronic therapy areas which have been resilient during the pandemic as people hardly avoid heart and diabetes medications.

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Respiratory segment has been clocking negative growth for the past several months, and slumped to a 14.1 per cent negative growth in the first month of the year compared a negative growth of 9.8 per cent in December.

Anti-infectives, a segment comprising antibiotics and antivirals, has seen a struggle ever since the pandemic began as people continue to take precautions and are falling less sick. Anti-infectives saw a decline of 2.7 per cent in January after growing by 5.2 per cent in December. Vitamins and gastro-intestinal segments, however, continued to clock strong growth at 12.2 per cent and 14.3 per cent. Pain and analgesics too has grown by 5 per cent in January.

Among corporates, Sun Pharmaceuticals posted a 5.1 per cent growth while Lupin posted a 4.6 per cent growth. Mankind did well at 9.3 per cent while Cipla growth came in at 4.2 per cent.

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