The Indian Pharmaceutical Market (IPM) delivered robust sales growth of 17.7% in August 2021 (July 2021: 13.7%). The acute therapy segment’s sales grew around 17% YoY in August 2021 (July 2021: 20.3%) on a low base while the chronic therapy segment’s sales rose about 12.5% YoY (8.3%). These are the highlights of the India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra), report.

Post normalisation of the high growth months of April 2021 (51.5% growth) and May 2021 (47.8%) led by the lockdown related lower base last year and higher volume growth, the average IPM growth from June to August 2021 stood at 15.2% YoY. In terms of growth drivers, the price growth, new product launches growth and volume growth stood at 9.0%, 5.9% and 2.9% YoY, respectively, which led to an overall IPM size of INR1,632 billion in August 2021 (July 2021: INR1,610 billion).

Strong Growth in Acute Therapies, albeit at a lower rate; Chronic Therapies grew higher: The acute therapy segment reported sales growth of 16.9% YoY (July 2021: 20.3% YoY; June 2021: 20.6% YoY), while chronic and sub-chronic therapy segments reported stable growth at 10.8% YoY (6.4% YoY; 7.8% YoY) and 15.3% YoY (11.3%; 11.2%), respectively, in August 2021. During FY21, Ind-Ra highlights that the acute therapy segment reported negative growth on account of Covid-19 while the chronic therapy segment reported average growth of 7.0% in the same period.

Top Five Therapies Contribution stood at 58% of IPM: These therapies are cardiac (chronic; 13.2% of IPM), anti-infectives (acute; 14.3%), gastro-intestinal (acute; 11.5%), anti-diabetic (chronic; 9.5%) and vitamins (acute; 9.2%).