Demand for chronic illness medicines rising faster than acute drugs: Report

Long-term treatments like diabetes, high blood pressure and lipid-lowering drugs are classified into the chronic category

Demand for medicines used in chronic illnesses is growing at a faster clip compared to acute therapy drugs that are used usually for a shorter duration. Data shows that the share of chronic medicines in the Indian pharma market has grown from 31 per cent in 2012-13 to 36 per cent in 2018-19. 
 

During this period, the domestic pharma market, too, has grown from Rs 75,071 crore to Rs 1.3 trillion. The market is broadly split into acute and chronic segments, depending on the duration of patient’s use of medicines. 
 

Anti-infectivess, a category of medicines used to treat infections (primarily