Domestic drug market growth slows top 4.5% in January, some therapies drag

Respiratory segment and anti-infectives contract; Cardiac, anti-diabetic growth rates plummet

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. 

 

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.