Patented and in-licensed drugs post robust growth in Indian market

See 13.9% growth on MAT basis as against 9.4% for other drugs

Patented and in-licensed products are growing at a robust pace in the Indian drug market, and now constitute 4.5 per cent of the domestic pharma market.

Latest data from market research firm AIOCD AWACS shows that the patented and in-licensed products clocked 13.9 per cent growth as on MAT January 2020. MAT refers to moving annual turnover or turnover of the past 12 months. 

Against this, the domestic pharma market (without the patented and in-licensed products) has clocked 9.4 per cent growth rate during the same period. A look at the top brands sold in the market explains the same. Mixtard, the insulin brand from Danish drug major Novo Nordisk, has maintained the top position for many quarters. As in January, multiple brands from multinational players, including Sanofi’s Lantus (insulin), Merck’s Janumet (diabetes medicine containing a patented molecule Sitagliptin) and GSK’s Augmentin (an antibiotic) feature in the top five brands in the domestic pharma market. 

Multinational drug makers have clocked 8.6 per cent growth on a MAT basis (as in January) while domestic manufacturers have clocked 9.8 per cent growth. In the last quarter, however, there has been some slip in the growth rate of MNCs — 6.8 per cent as opposed to 11.2 per cent of Indian companies. 

Demand for patented and in-licensed products have improved with increased compliance of patients, which means more people are not dropping off their medicines midway, but continuing the therapies. “The demand in the pharma market is price inelastic. These are life-saving drugs and people do not stop consumption. Moreover, compliance has improved than before and hence the share of patented drugs has increased,” said a senior executive in a domestic firm. 

He said that most of the high-margin drugs in the diabetes segment (around Rs 14,000-crore market) are patented drugs — gliptins and gliflozins. While some innovators market the products themselves here, they have also chosen the licensing route to reach out to a wider crowd. 

Overall, in January, the Indian pharma market (IPM) grew 7.6 per cent — this was driven by a price growth of 5.2 per cent, but the volume growth was negative (-0.3 per cent). AIOCD noted that in the past 12 months average volume growth has been 1.8 per cent. January, however, saw a dip in volume growth.