Lockdown serves domestic pharma the bitter pill: April growth slips

Lack of fresh prescriptions drags growth in acute therapies

After growing by almost 9 per cent in March when panicky consumers stocked up on chronic medication, the domestic pharmaceutical market declined 11.2 per cent year-on-year (YoY) in April.

The prime drag on the market was the drop in sales of acute therapy medicines like antibiotics, apart from dermatological and gynaecological drugs that witnessed sharp fall.

According to the data from market research firm AIOCD AWACS, anti-infectives (which comprise 11 per cent of the domestic pharma market) fell 21.5 per cent, while gyanaecological drugs (around 5 per cent of the market) dropped 23 per cent. The dermatology segment (6 per cent of