Dr Reddy's bullish on OTC products sale through Amazon, others in US

Don't want to miss the best from Business Standard?

Dr Reddy's Laboratories which also sells its Over the Counter (OTC) products through Amazon and other e-commerce channels in the US, is planning to double the portfolio on themarketplaceto over 50 products in the foreseeable future.

Dr Reddy's first began selling its OTC Habitrol brand nicotine patches on Amazon in 2016, as an experiment.

Shortly after launching it, Doan's was added to the portfolio and subsequently two years later in 2018 Amazon reached out to the Indian drug maker looking for companies that could launch Amazon-exclusive brands in the OTC space.

Dr Reddy's direct-to-consumer strategic priority gained the necessary traction and proved its viability.

In January this year, the HealthCareAisle store brand in the ecommerce space hit a key milestone, achieving USD 100,000 of sales in a week, the drug maker said in its latest annual report.

"At the current growth rate, the Amazon direct-to consumer channel is now a key growth driver for the OTC business, and the team plans to launch products on Amazon first and then to other channels.

Additionally, they anticipate ramping up to double their online portfolio to 50+ products in the foreseeable future," it said.

Dr Reddy's revenue from North America Generics (NAG) was Rs 7050 crore, with a growth of 9 per cent versus FY2020.

The growth was supported by the launch of 27 new products includingCiprofloxacin Dexamethasone, OTC Diclofenac, Sapropterin, Abiraterone (Canada) and Colchicine tablets.

As of March 31, 2021, Dr Reddys had three late projects at different levels of development, ranging from products that have completed Phase 2 clinical trials to a product that is undergoing pivotal studies for registration.

In addition, it has multiple other programmes in the early stages of development (i.e., exploratory stage through Phase 2) in the pipeline, the drug maker said on its Proprietary Products Segment.