Medicine sales in India in the month of July were flat on a year-on-year basis, although it has recovered since the past few months when the country under a lockdown. The drug sales in July were up by 0.2% to 12, 124 crore. Cardiac care and antibiotic drugs posted healthy growth, however, it was slower as compared to June. The sales for acute therapies remained suppressed, thus the growth was on account of chronic medicines. Besides, the sale of cardiovascular drugs were up 13.1%, at a slightly slower growth rate compared to 13.9% in June and compared to 8.5% in the last month, the anti-diabetic drugs posted 5.9% growth.
Furthermore, the sales of anti-infectives continued to fall for the fourth consecutive month and were down by 10.2%. The sales of acute therapy segment and gastrointestinal drugs also slumped by 2.4%. The continuous fall in the sales of acute therapy drugs shows that people are avoiding visiting clinics and OPDs of hospitals due to the fear of coronavirus, which has drastically changed the market scenario of the pharmaceutical sector over the past few months. The market has seen a see-saw growth as far as the first half of 2020 is concerned.
Let us have a look at the wavering growth of the Indian Pharmaceutical market in the past few months.
January 2020
Slipping lower than December 2019, which stood at 8.8%, the Indian Pharmaceutical Market (IPM) registered a growth of 7.6% for the month of January 2020. IPM recorded sales of Rs.1, 41,224 crore
February 2020
The growth of IPM came back in double digits in February as it increased by 12.1%. It recorded the sales of 1, 42, 658 crore in the month.March 2020
With some evidences of panic buying in chronic medicines, the IPM registered a growth of 8.9% in the month of March 2020. Sales in the month were recorded Rs. 1, 43, 738 crore.
April 2020
The industry was hit hard in the month of April due to the disruptions caused by the nationwide lockdowns. The market growth was slumped by 11.2% as a result.
May 2020
The market downfall continued in the month of May as well. IPM registered a slip of 8.9% in the overall growth and recorded sales of Rs. 1, 41, 979 crore.
June 2020
The trend of negative growth in the April-May came to an end in June 2020 with growth of 2.4%. Moreover, the IPM also recorded sales of Rs. 1, 42, 285 crore.
