Indian pharma market registers over 5% growth in Sept 2024: Pharmarack

The Indian pharmaceutical market (IPM) grew by 5.3 per cent in September this year, driven by major therapies showing positive value growth, according to market research firm Pharmarack.

Among them, urology, cardiac, and dermatology therapies saw nearly double-digit value growth of 11.8 per cent, 9.7 per cent, and 9.5 per cent, respectively, driving the overall IPM growth.

This comes even as the IPM registered a negative unit growth of -2.3 per cent, with only anti-diabetic and urology therapy segments recording significant unit growth of 3.1 per cent and 5.4 per cent, respectively.

Commenting on the unit growth, Sheetal Sapale, vice-president (commercial) at Pharmarack, said that the relatively positive unit growth in the anti-diabetic segment is due to a lot of molecular combinations going off-patent and branded generics entering the market, capitalising on this opportunity.

“Value growth for the quarter ending in September 2024 is completely price-driven, with volume growth being only a small fraction. For the month of September 2024, volume growth is negative,” Sapale added.

According to the report, growth in the moving annual turnover (MAT, which is the previous 12 months’ turnover) for IPM between October 2023 and September 2024 stood at 8.5 per cent, leading to a total turnover of over Rs 2.17 trillion in IPM.

The MAT of leading therapy areas such as cardiac, gastrointestinal, and anti-infectives, which constitute around 38 per cent of IPM, showed robust value growth at 12.5 per cent, 9.9 per cent, and 6.3 per cent, respectively.

While top players registered modest monthly value growth in the domestic market in September 2024, companies such as Corona (19.8 per cent), Hegde & Hegde (12.6 per cent), Indoco (11.5 per cent), Bayer (11.4 per cent), and Cipla (10.8 per cent) posted significant monthly value growth among the top 40 companies in the IPM.

GSK’s antibiotic drug Augmentin and Aristo’s antibiotic drug Monocef were the top-selling medicine brands for the month, with sales of Rs 82 crore and Rs 77 crore, respectively.