Abbott India gets aggressive on new product launches, plans 110 in 5 years

The pharma firm, which had launched 14 products last year, is using social media to get into sub-therapies

Cricketer Virendra Sehwag recently featured in a YouTube video on constipation created by Abbott India (AIL), the listed subsidiary of the US-based pharma giant. This received 1.5 million unique views. Also, the company’s campaign on Twitter was among top 5 trends with 35 million impressions. 

It is a campaign like this that AIL is using to get into sub-therapies as it plans to accelerate sales growth by launching 20-22 new products each year for the next five years. This is against 14 launched last year.

“We want to go beyond the pills to meet our strategic intent of being a pioneering healthcare company,” said Ambati Venu, managing director, AIL. 

Company’s campaign on constipation involved a nation-wide gut health survey to assess the condition of constipation sufferers in the country as well as the association of constipation with comorbidities such as diabetes, hypothyroidism. 

The survey found out that 49 per cent of the respondents were shy about seeking medical help to solve their problem. In fact, on an average, respondents admitted to waiting for an average of four months before deciding on consulting a doctor. Also, a 33 per cent of the sufferers never treated constipation, while 48 per cent resorted to home remedies to treat the condition. It is these untapped customers that the company plans to tap into creating awareness about the importance of healthy gut to build strong immune system. Company’s laxative brands include Duphalac and  Cremaffin.      

“Every therapy we operate we try and understand entire patient journey – right from the time a patient needs to become aware, to diagnosis, treatment, post-treatment care and lifestyle modifications,” he said.

Abbott operates through two main entities in India that include unlisted Abbott Healthcare apart from AIL. The listed entity has outpaced its multinational peers to register a 14.6 per cent growth in sales to Rs 25.19 billion in nine months of the current financial.

The growth for AIL has come at a time when GST implementation affected most Indian pharma companies including the MNC peers. Some of their products have also been impacted by growing list of NLEM (National List of Essential Medicines) products. This saw the UK based GlaxoSmithKline and the US-based Pfizer report negative sales growth of respectively 2 per cent and 5.2 per cent in this period to Rs 21.47 billion and Rs 14.49 billion.

Treatment for thyroid and influenza vaccination for expecting woman are other categories where AIL has used awareness campaigns to boost its sales. AIL currently markets over 110 brands in India. The company is a leading player in the thyroid segment and has over 55 per cent market share through its flagship brand Thyronorm which grew by 43 per cent ( In Dec 2017) despite being under price control. Now it plans to get into sub therapies such as thyroid cancer. 

“In terms of broad therapy areas I do not think there can be much change in future as Abbott (all our divisions put together) has a presence in almost 90 per cent of the therapy areas in India,” said Venu. “AIL on its own is present primarily in women’s health, gastroenterology, thyroid, diabetes, neurology, vaccines, pain management and general care. So in these areas, we will further get into the depth with targeting the sub therapies,” he said. 

Ranjit Kapadia, an analyst with domestic brokerage Centrum said, “AIL continues to give marketing thrust on top 17 brands. It is present in metros and tier I and Tier II cities and has no plans to enter the rural market.”