Veteran industrialist Y K Hamied-led Cipla has edged out Daiichi-Sankyo-owned Ranbaxy Laboratories as the largest player in the domestic pharmaceutical market in the January-November period, according to data compiled by ORG-IMS..

Cipla regained its numero uno position in the Rs 33,000-crore domestic retail market with 5.32 per cent market share, marginally ahead of Ranbaxy, which had 5.08 per cent share. ORG-IMS tracks sales of pharmaceutical drugs in India on a monthly-basis through over 3,000 stockists and 6,000 doctors.

Cipla overtook Ranbaxy and GlaxoSmithKline India (GSK) to become the largest pharmaceutical company in the domestic market for the first time in May 2007. Thereafter, it was a close battle between Ranbaxy and Cipla.
 

In October this year, Ranbaxy said it has regained its number-one position during the moving quarter of January to August 2008, as well as for the entire Q2 period with 5.08 per cent market share.

Number of products, scale of operations with over 2,500 medical representatives, market reach and focus on high-value products help both companies dominate domestic drug sales, said analysts.

“Both companies are aggressively marketing high-value drugs for lifestyle diseases as well as drugs for anti-infection. Both also have well spread out large marketing teams and systems,” noted Sarabjit Kaur Nagra, vice-president, research with Angel Broking.

Interestingly, neither Ranbaxy nor Cipla own any top-selling drug brands in India and except for Ranbaxy’s Mox, none of their brands figure among the over Rs 100-crore turnover brands. According to ORG-IMS market reflections, cough and cold syrup Corex of Pfizer is the leader followed by Voveran — the flagship pain-killer drug of Novartis India.

Trade sources said Ranbaxy’s leading five brands — amoxycillin antibiotic Mox (Rs 109.3 crore), mutivitamin Revital (Rs 88 crore), cephalexin brand Sporidex (Rs 82.1 crore), ciprofloxacin brand Cifran (Rs 76.9 crore) and cardiovascular drug Lipitor’s copy cat Storvas (Rs 72.8 crore), together contributed Rs 429 crore for the 12-month period ended November 2008.

As against this, Cipla’s five largest selling brands — asthma drugs Asthalin (Rs 94.7 crore) and Seroflo (Rs 82.9 crore), amoxicillin brand Novamox (Rs 73.3 crore), abortion drug MT Pill (Rs 60.2 crore) and asthma/respiratory salbutamol combo drug Aerocort (Rs 58.3 crore), together contributed Rs 369.4 crore during the same period.

“Generic pharmaceutical companies cannot afford to lose out on any specific segments and in this way both companies aggressively market their products, especially by year end to clear their inventories,” said Sujay Shetty, associate director, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Traditionally, Ranbaxy concentrates on selling new drug delivery systems such as once-a-daily dosages and have strength in anti-infectants. Similarly, Cipla has strength in anti-HIV drugs, respiratory disease drugs and contraceptives. Both companies also have a good portfolio of over the counter drugs, he noted.

Chronic therapy drugs for diseases such as diabetes and heart diseases contribute almost one-fourths to Ranbaxy’s total sales. In the case of cardiovascular and anti-diabetics- drugs, Ranbaxy is growing at over 33 per cent and 24 per cent respectively, as against an industry average of 15 per cent and 16 per cent respectively.

The company is also the market leader in anti-infection segment with over 11 per cent market share. Further, five of its brands figure in the top-selling 30 drugs in the domestic market and 18 brands figure in the top 300. Among new launches, Ranbaxy has four products in the top 30 new introductions during the last one year.

As against this, Cipla’s domestic sales stood at Rs 591.27 crore for the quarter ended September 2008, 16 per cent more than the figures for the corresponding previous year, and 44 per cent of the total sales for the quarter.

In the 2007-08 period alone, the company introduced close to 25 drugs, more than double the number of drugs pharmaceutical companies usually launch in a year. This included the widely advertised women contraceptive, i-Pill.

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