In the R60,000-crore domestic drug market, Sun Pharmaceutical is on the brink of crossing GlaxoSmithKline to become the third largest firm by the marketshare. For the period of 12 months ended January, both the drug companies have logged an identical revenue of R2,753 crore and grabbed a market share of 4.7% each in the domestic market.
For the month of January alone, Sun had already pulled off the feat of beating GSK, by clocking R255 crore sales in the country, R30 crore ahead of GSK and just R10 crore less than the second largest player Cipla, according to pharma market research agency Aiocd Awacs. Ameesh Masurekar, the director of Aiocd Awacs, terms it ?a first-time ever? for the company.
?On a monthly basis, Sun has overtaken GSK to bag the third rank ? first time ever. Zydus Cadila, by virtue of acquiring Biochem, has moved to the fourth rank from sixth in December 2011 (sixth was stand-alone without Biochem),? Masurekar said.
More importantly, Sun has grown at a faster pace at over 23% last year, while GSK has posted a growth rate of 13.2% in the same period. Experts partially attribute this accomplishment of Sun to its drug portfolio, a large chunk of which comprises of chronic drugs, mainly in the therapeutic space of cardiology, neurology and psychiatry.
?Overall, the company is now ranked number one based on share of prescriptions with seven classes of specialists: Psychiatrists, neurologists, cardiologists, ophthalmologists, orthopedicians, gastroenterologists and nephrologists,? a company statement said on Monday, putting out its financial performance for the quarter ended December 2011. For the quarter, sale of branded prescription formulations in India stood at R696 crore, accounting for 32% of the total sales. For the first nine months, sales were at R2,039 crore, the company said.
The overall domestic market grew a robust 16.5% in January, spurred by therapeutical segments of cardiac, diabetes and vitamins. While the diabetic vertical grew 31% and dermatological segment grew 20%, both cardiac and vitamins have grown over 19% in January.
?Cardiac and diabetic growth is a given, what is surprising is the exceptionally strong performance shown by vitamins and nutritionals segment in last two quarters. The growth rate hovering around 12% in early 2010 has picked up to reach 21% in January 2012,? Masurekar said, adding that the high-value brands, nutritional supplements which remain outside the price control net led to such growth. Also the fact that multi-ingredient cocktails or combination products ensure that very few brands are exactly identical, hence, price competition has limited impact helps the case of vitamins.