Diabetic, skin drugs top in Apr-Sept

Mumbai: Lifestyle disorders and skin issues troubled us the most during the half-year ended September, as indicated by the robust growth of anti-diabetic and dermatological drugs in an otherwise sluggish market where most therapies — including anti-infectives, respiratory and pain medication — showed a slide.
Sales of anti-diabetic drugs jumped over 14%, while derma medicines, the only other category to show double-digit growth in the pharma retail market, increased by nearly 11% during the April to September period this year, data culled from market research firm AIOCD said.
Overall, the Rs 1.14-lakh-crore market was impacted in the run-up to the GST implementation, growing by a mere 3.7% during the half-year period. Among the top therapies, anti-infectives and respiratory were in negative territory at -5.4% and -2% respectively, while neuro and gynaecological drugs each registered a little over 4% growth. Cardiac medicines at 7.5% were among the few that posted decent growth.
The lean period continued for September with the market posting a slow growth of 2.8% for the month, driven by an increase in chronic therapy. Industry experts say the GST rollout impacted the third quarter with incremental sales hitting the lowest rate, hence the next quarter will be crucial.
Chronic therapy like anti-diabetic drugs showed double-digit growth of 10.7%, while cardio segment was in a single digit (5.9%), which is slower than August growth. Anti-infectives sales registered a degrowth in September at -2.4%, while dermatology continued to post double-digit growth of 12%, which is even faster than the monthly growth of the anti-diabetics segment.
Elaborating on the strong growth in dermatology, Glenn Saldanha, chairman and MD of Glenmark, said, “Over the years, we have remained focused on dermatology and have launched 10-15 products every year in this segment. We have constantly tried to innovate and brought new treatment options for patients. Because of these efforts, we have consistently gained market share in the derm segment for the past several years. Dermatology remains a core area for us globally, and we are among the top-five players (in dermatology) in Russia, and also along one of the major dermatology generic players in the US.”