Liv-52 In Top-10 Brands List

The sales of Liv-52, an ayurvedic composition manufactured by the Bangalore-based Himalaya Drug Co, Liv-52, has made it into the list of top 10 brands, according to 1996 sales. The brand, an anti-ulcerant, sales stood at nearly Rs 8 lakh.

This is the only Indian developed drug in a list dominated by allopathic drugs by multinationals and large Indian companies. Becosules, a vitamin B complex pill made by US company Pfizer tops the list with Rs 10 lakh in sales. Septrin, an anti-biotic made by Burrows Williams and Corex, a cough syrup of Pfizer comes next.

Ranbaxy the leading Indian drug company has two brands in the top ten, Roscillin, a penicillin drug and sporidex a cephalosporin. The information is according to the Pharmaceutical Global Review of International Database published in a study on the Indian Drugs industry by Lehman Brothers.

 

The presence of Indian brands in a field which was until five years ago dominated by multinationals shows that Indian brands have come of age in the market.

The number of Indian brands in the top 20 list is also very encouraging with companies like Cipla, Gufic, Lupin, and Alembic figuring with significant sales figures of their brands.

Indian drug companies have had an image of not promoting brands but only being strong on bulk drugs and some generic formulations. This is because brand promotion in the pharmaceutical industry is a very expensive excercise and Indian companies were not considered very strong on marketing muscle.

More significantly, sales of Indian brands like Roscillin, Liv-52 and Mox by Gufic have grown over 25 per cent.