Anti-diabetic drugs are leading the growth in the pharmaceuticals market, posting the highest value growth of over ₹155 crore among the new brands launched in the last 12 months. The respiratory segment, which clocked sales of ₹152.9 crore from 223 new brands in the 12 months ended April, came second, followed by vitamin/mineral/nutrients with ₹144.4 crore from 467 brands, data from market research firm IQVIA showed.
In the anti-diabetic category, 485 brands were launched during this period. According to pharma experts, the anti-diabetes market over the last five years has grown at 32% CAGR to ₹474 crore in January 2024. “There are many factors that are driving this trend,” said Anoop Misra, chairman of Fortis C-DOC Hospital for Diabetes and Allied Sciences and director of National Diabetes Obesity and Cholesterol Foundation (NDOC), citing increasing number of patients and new combination of drugs being launched against diabetes.
He said in places like Delhi and tier-two cities, patients prefer combination drugs and that may be a contributing factor.
As per IQVIA report, many of the new drug launches are brand extensions of earlier well-established brands, like Omez (gaestrointestinal), Codistar (cough syrup), Zifi (bacterial infections) Budamate (asthma drug), and Foracort (inhaler).
After reporting lowest monthly growth in March 2024, the Indian pharmaceutical market (PM) monthly growth rebound to 8.8% in April, which is the fourth highest growth in the last 13 months, IQVIA said.
Data suggest that chronic segments continued to grow faster at 9.9% as compared to acute segment growth of 5.8% in moving annual total (MAT), or the sum of past 12 months, as of April end.”April monthly sales have reported a very good growth over March sales at 12.3%. Acute segment grew by 12.9% while the chronic segment grew by 11.5%. This is the second-best April month in the last five years,” the report said.According to the data, derma, cardiac and anti-diabetic segments reported higher growth in April as compared to their MAT growth. Growth of anti-infective remained sluggish while respiratory and anti-viral reported a degrowth year on year in April.
Among the top rankers, Foracort, used for asthma and respiratory issues, assumed the top slot with a growth of 8.74% with sales of over ₹874 crore in 12 months ended April.
Indian companies are growing faster than multinationals in both acute and chronic segments though the MNCs are constantly catching up, the report said.