Reckitt Benckiser unveils 2 Dispirin versions

Our Corporate Bureau

New Delhi, Aug 28: RECKITT Benckiser, the Indian arm of $5-billion Reckitt Benckiser Plc, has launched two new versions of its 24-year old brand Dispirin for various therapeutic uses in a bid to extend the reach of its Dispirin brand.

The company has already replaced its existing 350-mg dispirin tablets, which was aspirin-based, with paracetamol-based Dispirin Plus, a 500-mg over-the-counter (OTC) tablet for pain relief.

The drug would be marketed by Nicholas Piramal India Ltd as part of their strategic alliance with Reckitt.

“It is a new brand initiative by Reckitt and we plan to extend the brand to other therapeutic segments as well,” Mr Pranab Barua, chairman and managing director, Reckitt Benckiser told The Financial Express.

The company is extending its painkiller brand, Dispirin to specialty segments like cardiovascular with prescription drug, Dispirin CV.
The tablet has been priced at 14 paise and will be launched in September.

“Reckitt Benckiser has been promoting Dispirin (350mg aspirin) for pain relief. However, this dose of 350mg aspirin is not recommended for cardiovascular and other uses and that the reason for the launch of Dispirin CV,” Mr Barua added.

Although Reckitt’s Colsprin (100mg aspirin), also a cardiovascular drug, may have an overlap with Dispirin CV. Mr Barua said that Colsprin may even be withdrawn depending on market response to Dispirin CV.

Reckitt’s Dispirin brand is already present in the cold & flu segment with Dispirin cold & flu tablets and Dispirin plus tablets for analgesic segment, which was launched in August.

“Although the Dispirin brand is around Rs 20 crore, it is a big brand for us, which has not been fully exploited by us. We now plan to extract the maximum out of this established brand. We hope that the Dispirin brand will grow by over 20 per cent and will become a Rs 100 crore brand in the next four years,” Mr Barua said.

“We like to have a market leadership position in the analgesic, cold and flu and cardiovascular, which put together is over Rs 260 crore,” Mr Barua said.

Analgesic market in India is estimated at Rs 130 crore, cold & flu at Rs 100 crore and cardiovascular at Rs 35 crore.

Reckitt has a 15 per cent market share in the analgesic segment and a negligible share in the other two segments.

The company plans to spend a lot of resources in educating and creating awareness through promotional activities and advertising. The company spent around 14-15 per cent of its turnover on promotional activities last year.