Domestic Pharma Sales Bounce Back After Two Months Of Decline

Domestic pharma sales bounced back in July after two falling for consecutive months as most therapies clocked double-digit growth rates.

Pharma sales grew 13.2 percent in July compared with 6.5 percent in June, according to data released by AIOCD AWACS—a pharmaceutical market research firm. The growth was led by a 4.5 percent volume growth, a 5.7 percent price growth and a 2.9 percent growth from new introductions.

This comes as a relief for the industry as the country's pharmaceutical market grew at its slowest pace in five years in the quarter ended June because of a fall in volumes even as prices remained stable.

Sales in India's pharmaceutical market in July 2019 were the highest in last 32 months, according to Rakesh Nayudu, pharma analyst at Haitong Securities Pvt. Ltd. The second quarter, Rayudu said, is seasonally better for the market.

Pharma volumes grew 4.5 percent, highlighting a reversal from the decline of 0.6 percent in June 2019, Edelweiss analyst Deepak Malik told BloombergQuint in an emailed response.

As per the data released by AIOCD-AWACS, respiratory therapies grew at 17.9 percent, anti-infectives therapies grew at 16.1 percent, cardio therapies grew at 13.3 percent, gastro-intestinal therapies grew at 12.5 percent, vitamins and minerals therapies grew at 12.3 percent, central nervous system therapies grew at 11.3 percent and dermatology therapies grew at 9.5 percent.

48 out of 50 companies showed “positive growth” in India's pharmaceutical market for the month of July, AIOCD-AWACS data showed. Among the top 10 companies, Glaxosmithkline Pharmaceuticals Ltd. showed the highest growth at 24.6 percent followed by Alkem Laboratories Ltd. at 19.8 percent and Mankind Pharma at 19.2 percent. Among the companies ranked between 11 and 20, Aristo Pharma had the highest growth at 29.9 percent, followed by Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd. growing at 19.1 percent and Emcure Pharmaceuticals at 18 percent.

Among the smaller companies, JB Chemicals, Hetero, Indoco Remedies and Boehringer Ingelheim showed over 20 percent growth.