Pharma market grew by 6.8 pc at Rs 6,370 cr in May 2013

For 12-month period ended May 2013, pharmaceutical market was reported at Rs 74,117 crore, with a growth of 10%, over same period last year

Despite weak market conditions, the domestic pharmaceutical market reported growth of 6.8% at Rs 6,370 crore for the month of May 2013, IMS Health said in its report here.

For the 12-month period ended May 2013, the pharmaceutical market was reported at Rs 74,117 crore, with a growth of 10%, over the same period last year.

"The pharma market reported total sales of Rs 6,370 crore in the month of May 2013 registering a growth of 6.8% in the previous year. However, we have seen a slight dip in the market as compared to previous month. The market reported a sales of Rs 6,744 crore, a growth of 13.9% in April 2013," IMS Health senior director, Strategy Planning, (Business Development, Pharma & Payer Solutions), Kumar Hinduja said in a report here.

Though traditionally the market in May is relatively weak as compared to April on account of summer vacations and the prevalent heat conditions, we believe that some market factors have further dampened sales uptake in May, this year, Hinduja said.

"One factor was the apprehension in the trade on the imminent implementation of DPCO 2013 and its implication on their business, including recall / re-labelling of formulations which would undergo price revisions".

"Uncertainty around this appears to have prompted majority of dealers to maintain lower inventory levels of drugs during the month - both at retail as well as stockist levels. For the same reasons, trade schemes which generally induce higher uptake of goods, were almost absent in the market, this May," Hinduja added.

For the month of May 2013 - Cipla with Rs 302 crore sales, Sun Rs 297 crore, Alkem Rs 222 crore and Sanofi Rs 186 crore sales were the fastest growing corporations among the top 10 companies.

Among top 20 companies, USV was the fastest growing company (21.1%) for the month of May 13, as well as for the period MAT May 2013 (21.9%).

The month of May witnessed, local companies registered stronger growth at 7.4%, while MNC pharma companies grew at 5.3%. The top 10 companies with a combined share of 40.5% grew at 4.3% for the month, the report said.

Anti-diabetics was the fastest growing therapy for the month of May 2013 (18.0%), followed by dermatology (13.3%) & cardiac drugs (11.2%). Chronic therapies continue to show relatively stronger growth for the month underlining the growing penetration of these disease conditions in the Indian population, according to the report.

The anti-infectives market stood at Rs 915 crore, cardiac Rs 775 crore, gastro intestinal  Rs 737 crore, pain/analgesics Rs 520 crore, vitamins Rs 514 crore, respiratory Rs 414 crore and gynaecology Rs 372 crore in May 2013.