Domestic pharma growth falls to 12-month low of 1.8% in Sept

Moving annual total growth slipped below 10% for first time this year

As Indian pharmaceutical companies feel the heat of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s stringent guidelines, with many seeing sales in the US being hit, the road at home, too, hasn’t been smooth.

The implementation of the new drug pricing policy saw sales of the domestic pharmaceutical market slump to a 12-month low in September.

At Rs 6,834 crore, the Indian pharmaceutical market grew a meagre 1.8% year-on-year in September 2013, according to IMS Research.

Though the September quarter usually sees a sharp rise in sales of anti-infectives and related products, this year, drug sales have taken a beating.

While domestic pharma sales stood at Rs 6,883 crore at the beginning of the September quarter, growing a healthy 13.5% year-on-year, growth plunged thereafter; August saw growth of just 4.9%. The anti-infective and respiratory drugs segments, which together account for 24% of the market, contracted 19% and 7.1%, respectively, compared to September 2012.

At 9.3%, MAT (moving annual total) growth breached the 10% mark for first time this year. The soft pharma industry growth in May and June had led to MAT growth touching the 10% mark at that time.

The IMS report attributes the slowing growth to “a combination of factors, driven primarily by the weak overall economic growth, the DPCO 2013 regulation and the ban on certain molecules”.

In terms of sales, Abbott (Rs 452 crore), Cipla (Rs 322 crore), Sun Pharma (Rs 313 crore) and Zydus Cadila (Rs 268 crore) top the list; in growth terms, Sun Pharma (17.8%) is way ahead of peers such as Cadila (1.8%), Cipla (0.8%) and Mcleaod (0.7%).

Growth in the chronic segment, which has a market share of 29%), outpaced the larger acute segments, growing 15.2%. The acute segment contracted 2.8%.

Anti-diabetics was the fastest-growing segment, recording 25.9% growth, followed by dermatology (15.7%), cardiac (15.6%) and neurology (10.6%). However, the anti-infective segment, which has a market share of 15.9% share, contracted 19%.