Indian drug market growth moderates to 7.1% in February

The Indian pharmaceutical market grew at much slower pace in February on the back of lower growth in acute segment and declining sales of fixed dose combination (FDC) drugs and government price caps on drugs listed under National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM). The domestic drug market grew at 7.1 percent in February compared to 13.5 percent growth in the same period last year, according to data from market research firm AIOCD-AWACS. The pharma market clocked Rs 8,980 crore in February adding Rs 596 crore. Among the top companies, Cadila Healthcare has the highest growth at 11.8 percent followed by Sun Pharma at 8.1 percent and Abbott at 7.1 percent, the data showed.Domestic sales of India’s largest drug maker Sun Pharma rose 8.1 percent on year to Rs 783 crore in February. The company had a market share of 8.59 percent. Cipla had sales of Rs 438 crore growing at 3.1 percent, while sales of Cadila Healthcare rose 11.8 percent at Rs 398 crore and those of Lupin rose 5.5 percent to Rs 292 crore.  Price-led growth of pharma companies has been on a decline in the current financial year due to price-control regulations of the government. Sales of drugs under price control fell 8 percent in February, while those of drugs outside the price control rose 9.6 percent, the data showed.The therapeutic areas anti-diabetic market grew at 16.1 percent, followed by cardiac 7.8 percent; neuro/CNS (or central nervous system) at 4.4 percent in chronic business.In acute segment anti-infectives declined by 4.2 percent in February. Indian pharmaceutical market is worth little over Rs 1 lakh crore in 2016. It grew at 10.2 percent for the year gone by.