India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) highlights that the Indian pharmaceutical market (IPM) delivered moderated-but-healthy sales growth of 12.4% YoY in September 2021 compared to 17.7% in August 2021.

The acute therapy segment’s sales grew around 17.3% YoY in September 2021 (August 2021: 16.9%) on a low base while the chronic therapy segment’s sales were lower about 8.0% YoY (12.5%). Ind-Ra highlights that the acute segment has been showing robust performance since March 2021 (average growth at 33% YoY). 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 September 2021 has been strong (14.4% YoY). In terms of growth drivers, the price growth, new product launches growth and volume growth stood at 5.7%, 1.3% and 5.4% YoY, respectively, which led to an overall IPM size of INR1,649 billion in September 2021 (August 2021: INR1,432 billion).

Acute therapies continue to report strong growth compared to chronic ones: The acute therapy segment reported sales growth of 17.3% YoY (August 2021: 16.9% YoY; July 2021: 20.3% YoY), while chronic and sub-chronic therapy segments reported growth at 7.4% YoY (10.8% YoY; 6.4% YoY) and 8.9% YoY (15.3%; 11.3%), respectively, in September 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; 13.1% of IPM), anti-infectives (acute; 14.4%), gastro-intestinal (acute; 11.5%), anti-diabetic (chronic; 9.5%) and vitamins (acute; 9.1%).

NLEM: Drug price control has been a source of considerable agony to IPM. National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) in India, which determines the basis of drug price regulation, consists around 14% of the total IPM for the last four years.

NLEM exposure to IPM Limited to around 14% since September 2018