Coronavirus outbreak: Pharma market grows 9% in March due to panic buying

Cardio-diabetic and respiratory segments clock robust growth

Despite a nationwide lockdown that disrupted the distribution of drugs across the country and fresh prescription generation, pharmaceutical sales in March registered an 8.9 per cent growth. This was primarily on account of panic buying of medicines in the chronic categories.
 

Cardiac therapy drugs, for example, saw a 19.8 per cent growth compared to 11 per cent in February, anti-diabetic therapy, too, saw a strong growth of 18.2 per cent in March, compared to 11 per cent the previous month. With the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak, sales of respiratory medicines too saw a sharp spike at around 23 per cent.