Domestic pharma market growth slips to 6% in July, Health News, ET HealthWorld

New Delhi: The growth of the domestic pharma market slipped to mid-single digits after being robust so far this year. According to market research firm Pharmarack, India’s pharmaceutical market (IPM) grew 6.1%, with growth slowing down in many therapies.

“If we want to look at the IPM therapy performance for the month, the IPM has grown at around 6.1% but unit growth remains a challenge,” said Sheetal Sapale, VP, commercial, Pharmarack.

She said four key therapy segments – cardiac, anti-infectives, gastro and respiratory – have driven the growth of the market by showing “excellent” value growth. “Growth has slowed down in many therapies in July, but the core therapies have not degrown. The therapies with seasonal diseases are growing in double digits. They have pulled up the growth of the market as they have made significant contributions to IPM,” she added.

While the volumes remain a challenge, the market is majorly showing growth driven by price and new introductions.

“If I drill down deeper and look at the different therapies, we see that the anti-infective therapy and the respiratory therapy, these are the two therapies where the volume nodes are on a positive side,” Sapale added. In all other therapies mostly the volume node is on a negative side, the data suggested.

As monsoon sets in, anti-infective and respiratory therapies have the advantage of the seasonal disease pattern, which has led to an increase in demand of the molecules in this category.

In cardiac therapy, lipid lowering drugs, diuretics, heparins, the antithrombotic agents, heart failure therapies, antihypertensive agents, varicose therapy, and other cardiovascular products have shown either a strong volume driven growth, or a new introduction driven growth, Sapale added.