Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd has set up a task force, Rextar, comprising 225 new field staff to focus on products in its portfolio which are more than ten years old.
"The representatives will focus on our older products," Ranbaxy president (pharmaceuticals) Brian W. Tempest told Business Standard.
The new team was constituted after statistics revealed that during January-May 2001, while products that are less than five years old were growing at 45 per cent, products between five years and ten years old saw sales shrinking by 1 per cent and products more than ten years old, by 7 per cent.
However, older products contribute significantly to the company's sales which has led the company to take steps to rejuvenate their sales.
Thus, products less than five years old contributed 32.7 per cent to the sales during January-May 2001, five- to ten-year-old products contribute 19.1 per cent and more than 10 years old products, 48.2 per cent.
In addition to Rextar, Ranbaxy has also set up a Cifran Task Force of 50 new representatives to give a boost to Cifran, another product in the company's portfolio which has been around for a while.
According to Tempest, the constitution of the two taskforces is a response to the slow growth shown by the domestic pharmaceuticals market.
"We are looking at turning the drop in sales in older products into a growth," he said. As products more than 10 years old account for 48.2 per cent of the company's sales, a 10 per cent growth in their sales could raise the overall sales of the company by 2.82 per cent.
Meanwhile, the company has continued with its high pace of new product launches. In the last 12 months, Ranbaxy has introduced 21 brands in therapeutic segments such as cardio-vascular systems, anti-AIDS, orthopaedics, anti-diabetes.
Five of its products, as per the ORG Retail Audit, were among the top 30 introductions in the Indian market during the last one year. "No other company has so many products in the list," Tempest said.
In order to tap the rural market, Ranbaxy has come out with the "Blue R" range comprising over 80 products. R of Ranbaxy will be displayed in bold and blue on the packings for easy recognition.
The Ranbaxy brass is of the opinion that in upcountry markets, local products sell more due to their price advantage. The Blue R range has been put together to compete with such products in the rural markets.
