India’s drug business shoots up in October; pharma industry grows taking cues from these vital areas

India’s drug business shot up in the month of October 2020 due to increased sales and marketing activities by pharmaceutical companies, with unlocking. The Indian pharmaceutical market (IPM) grew 9.6 per cent on-year in the month, led by volume and price growth and an increase in products launches, said a report by India Ratings. While the prices grew 5 per cent, products were launched at a 3.7 per cent higher rate. The pharma market reported total sales of Rs 13,540 crore for October 2020. Revenue majorly grew in acute therapies, and chronic and sub-chronic therapies.    

The revenue in acute therapies grew 6 per cent on-year while that in chronic and sub-chronic therapies rose 13 per cent on-year each in the month. Acute therapies such as vitamins, gastro witnessed significant revenue growth of 22.6  per cent and 13.6 per cent on-year, respectively. 

The company-wise performance further revealed that during October, Glenmark, Aristo, and Mankind pharma significantly outperformed the market, with on-year growth of 16.6 per cent, 12.3 per cent, and 8.6 per cent, respectively. The outperformance in growth was led by higher sales of Covid-19 related products and the continued outperformance of chronic therapies. It is to be noted that earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that India’s pharma industry is an asset not just for India but for the entire world. 

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Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic had hurt the health of almost all the economic sectors, including the healthcare industry. Even being the most essential industry and one of the few businesses operating during the lockdown, its sales and profit were severely hit. Sales of hospitals and other healthcare services companies fell sharply by 28 per cent on-year and their profit fell by 7.7 per cent in the first quarter of FY21, said a report by Care Ratings. Lower footfalls due to domestic and international travel restrictions affected the performance of the industry.