Pharmatrac: Pharma market grows 9% in Feb on price increase, new products

India’s pharmaceutical market registered nearly 9% month-on-month growth in February, with all therapy areas doing well except the respiratory segment, which saw negative growth in terms of value and units, according to market research firm Pharmatrac.

Cardiology and anti-infective were the top-two therapy areas, data from Pharmatrac showed.

“If I were to look at the IBM therapy performance for the month, the industry has done really very well. It has shown a close to 9% growth,” said Sheetal Sapale, VP commercial, Pharmarack. “And if you look at all the therapy areas, all of them have shown robust growth, except the respiratory segment.”

According to Sapale, overall unit growth remained a challenge for the majority of therapy areas, but value growth appeared positive for them.

Market growth in February was mainly driven by price increase and new introductions. “Same trend was seen last year too,” Sapale said.

“Volume-driven growth was relatively strong for IPM (India’s pharmaceutical market),” she said. “If I were to look at the month growth drivers, three segments – the cardiac segment, the anti-infective segment and the anti-neoplastic segment – are among the relatively top segments which have shown a better volume-driven growth, but otherwise for majority of therapy areas, it is just the price or new introductions that have driven market growth.”Antibiotic drug Augmentin continued to be at the No.1 position, having registered 22% growth in February. The other top players were cholesterol drug Rosuvas, thyroid drug Thyronorm, Liv 52, and antacid Pan, which showed double-digit growth in terms of value as well as units.Anti-diabetic drug Rybelsus maintained triple-digit growth it had registered in the last several months. Ecosprin AV and Electral were the other brands which showed good double-digit growth.