COVID-19 has led to a surge in health consciousness among Indians, creating a demand for accessible and personalized self-care solutions. According to a report by IQVIA, considering the Consumer Health industry is growing rapidly, successful brand case studies are being developed on efficient route to market, reaching consumer differentially with better ROI, etc.
The pandemic has pressured many sectors to scale up their digital marketing capabilities, including consumer health brands. Interestingly, Bayer Consumer Health, launched during the pandemic in 2021, has played a crucial role in the growth of this industry. The company’s legendary brands like Saridon and Supradyn are some of the popular offerings of this industry. Now, Bayer’s mission is to empower 100 million Indian households with science-backed self-care by 2030, offering top-quality and safe over-the-counter products and promoting well-being.
In an exclusive interaction with Financial Express.com, Sandeep Verma, Country Head for India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka at Bayer Consumer Health Division talked about Bayer’s strong presence in the industry. Under his leadership, the company has successfully launched its legacy brands, Saridon and Supradyn, which have become leading self-care products for pain management and holistic nutrition, respectively. Excerpts:
What are some of the key driving factors of your consumer health business in India? How has been the growth trajectory so far?
We set up the consumer health division in India during the pandemic with the objective of making science backed self-care accessible to all individuals across the nation. This includes educating consumers about the responsible use of self-care and improving access to those OTC products that have a long history of safety and efficacy. Over the past three years, we have delivered high-quality self-care solutions while cultivating an ecosystem that encourages responsible self-care. Our global portfolio encompasses over 150 trusted brands, with products in analgesics, nutrition, allergy, and dermatology. In India, our primary focus areas are nutrition, pain management, dermatology and anti-allergy.
Three key driving factors of our consumer health business in India are:
Increased health consciousness among consumers: Post-pandemic, there has been a notable shift in consumer behavior with individuals increasingly prioritizing health and well-being, leading to a rise in healthcare spending. The healthcare industry is evolving in response to this new wave of consumer awareness, striving to deliver health solutions that meet consumer needs. This heightened consciousness helped us effectively penetrate the market with versatile solutions.
Driving deep integration of local insights into our business operation: Our approach is grounded in the belief that to truly serve the Indian market, we must go beyond superficial observations and dive deep into the cultural, regional, and lifestyle nuances that shape consumer behavior. This dedication to understanding our consumers at a granular level has enabled us to create products that resonate with local tastes and preferences. Leveraging this knowledge, we have developed tailored products that cater to these specific needs, whether it’s our latest offering Supradyn Naturals range which has the ingredients like turmeric, tulsi ashwagandha or Saridon Woman, which uses a plant based molecule to address needs of Indian women. This deep integration of local insights into our business operations has not only driven product innovation but has also fostered brand loyalty, allowing us to establish a strong foothold in the competitive Indian market. We believe that this localized approach is the cornerstone of our success and will continue to be the driving force behind our future growth.
In essence, by embedding local insights into our business strategy, we are not just meeting the needs of our consumers—we are anticipating them, ensuring that our offerings are always relevant, effective, and aligned with the evolving landscape of Indian health and wellness.
Using Digital to Empower Consumers and Enhance our accessibility: In today’s rapidly changing health landscape, access to accurate and reliable health information is more crucial than ever. As a leading player in the Indian consumer health sector, we recognize our responsibility not just to provide high-quality products but also to empower our consumers with the knowledge they need to make informed decisions about their health. The huge increase in internet penetration in India, along with access to smartphones has made it easier for people to stay informed about their healthcare choices. But information searched online is often felt to be overwhelming, complex and conflicting while the omni-present social media and blogs give opinion-based information that is largely impersonal and unstructured. We at Bayer Consumer Health have made concerted efforts to educate people with the right health information and to give people the confidence to take charge of their own health. All our advertising campaigns are based on strong local consumer insights and made with the intent to dispel some myths or to provide some new information to the Indian consumers. Besides other traditional media platforms we have extensively leveraged social media to run educationalvcampaigns that address common health concerns, debunk myths, and provide tips for healthy living.
Through engaging content such as videos, infographics, and live Q& A sessions, we reach a broad audience and foster an ongoing dialogue about health and wellness. The rise of e-commerce for essentials is also a trend that we are utilizing by launching products specifically targeted toward these shoppers. Our Supradyn Naturals Iron supplement has recently been launched on e-commerce only and is already one of the best sellers on Amazon.
How has the covid pandemic contributed to the growth and uptick of self-care? How has it influenced your consumer health business?
Self-care has gained momentum post-covid due to changing consumer preferences and increasing awareness of self-management. There is a notable trend towards personalized diets, enhanced focus on women’s health issues, and dermatology practices post-covid. This shift has influenced our business and helped us expand our contributions in the self-care market. While health awareness has increased, there is a need to educate consumers on responsible use of health solutions. We aim to promote responsible self-care and expand the self-care market, targeting 100 million households in India by 2027. Access to self-care products is challenging in smaller towns and villages, where 70% of the population lives. We use all available channels, including trade outlets and online portals, to improve access in these areas.
We also champion several initiatives to improve health literacy among consumers. One such initiative is Saridon Aarampur, a digital initiative that provides essential information related to headaches through voice-based AI tools. We have also partnered with ADA Health globally to work on simple apps designed to help people identify the right self-care practice at the right time, based on their individual health, risk factors, and current symptoms. We aim to foster discussions on self-care and leverage all available channels to promote its adoption. To enhance India’s self-care ecosystem, we focus on three areas: providing clear information for informed decisions, promoting safe self-care practices, and ensuring high-quality products that meet safety standards.
What are some of the key focal areas of your Consumer Health business? How have your offerings evolved over the years?
Our key focus areas include consumer-centricity, accessibility, and digital transformation. Our consumer-centric approach includes thorough research and surveys to understand consumer preferences and needs. Our first edition of Saridon Headache Survey highlighted the link between stress and headaches, with 90% of urban Indians reporting worsened conditions due to stress. The follow-up survey showed that one in three people experienced increased stress post-pandemic, due to financial issues and work pressure. These insights led to new line extensions.
Similarly, several studies show that 81-93% of women of reproductive age experience painful period cramps, and 40% have PMS symptoms, with 5-8% suffering from severe PMS. This issue can disrupt daily life and work. We recently launched Saridon Woman to offer women a safe and effective solution against the various pains they go through during their menstrual cycle. Insights from the Supradyn Nutrition Survey and our micronutrient deficiency study showed that even a a balanced diet, can only get upto 70% our micro-nutrient requirements and for the balance 30% it is important to take multivitamin supplements. This formed the basis for Supradyn’s strategy and an evolution of our overall innovation strategy too. Supradyn Naturals Iron was entirely developed in India in response to consumer preference for natural ingredients.
We also plan to launch Supradyn Naturals Calcium to address calcium and vitamin D deficiencies amongst Indians. We prioritize improving access to self-care solutions nationwide, including rural areas. To achieve this, we manufacture products locally and leverage India’s skilled talent in manufacturing, distribution, and sales. We are already present in over 4 Lakh stores in India and planning to expand our presence even further. We use advanced technologies to enhance product development and supply chain efficiency. Our goal is to fully digitize operations. We employ modern marketing techniques, data-driven insights, and digital platforms to connect with consumers through personalized messaging and targeted advertising. AI advancements further refine our engagement strategies.
What are your upcoming business growth plans? Do you have any plans for your product portfolio in FY25?
Our growth plans for the upcoming year focus on three key areas: enhancing our penetration into Indian households to provide increasing access to our products , expanding the self-care market, and leveraging partnerships. To enhance our penetration into the Indian homes, we are developing products tailored for India’s diverse regions, treating the country as a collection of unique markets. This approach helps us build relevance and penetrate deeply into each cluster.
We aim to grow the self-care market, which currently makes up less than 10% of the overall FMCG market. This can be achieved when the need for self-care solutions increases, and the availability is at par with the need. We will continue our aggressive innovation roadmap for extending our biggest brands Saridon and Supradyn in the pain and nutrition categories respectively and we are also revamping our dermatology portfolio by launching our biggest global brand Bepanthen, proudly made in India, for India. Beyond that also we have plans to bring in some other relevant global brands into India. Partnerships are essential to our strategy. We collaborate with various partners in research, manufacturing, and distribution to ensure timely delivery of high-quality products. We leverage local talent and aim to establish India as a Center of Excellence for R&D and manufacturing.
What are your market expectations for your Consumer health business? What are your growth plans in this segment to stay ahead of the market competitors?
Self-care enhances access to healthcare and individual health outcomes, and it supports global healthcare systems. With individuals increasingly making health decisions for themselves and their families, there are many opportunities for consumer health companies to innovate and offer personalized solutions. Since the pandemic, the consumption of wellness products, and seeking self-care solutions has increased tremendously. We see a continuation of this trend and we anticipate ongoing demand and innovation across all the categories in the self-care space. Innovation will be a key focus for our business, and we are developing a range of new products in India to meet the specific consumer needs of this country. We are also looking to expand our business in Bangladesh and Sri Lanks and plans are afoot for that too. We also foresee significant advancements driven by emerging technologies and AI. These technologies can optimize resources and improve efficiency. At Bayer’s Consumer Health division, we have integrated AI into various initiatives, such as AI-based smile detection during the Saridon relaunch and weather-based targeting for Canesten, using voice-based AI to access lower income consumers. We are actively exploring further technological advancements for our operations.
Are you planning to expand your offerings to new therapeutic or disease areas?
We conduct extensive research to understand market demands and consumption patterns, allowing us to introduce line or product extensions that address specific needs. We are expanding our dermatology portfolio by introducing our largest skin care brand Bepanthen in India, with a 75-year history as a skin health pioneer and a global presence in over 150 countries. The product caters to a very genuine need and our research among Indian consumers leads us to believe that it will be very well received in India. As we introduce this product, we want to raise consumer awareness about dermatological conditions, through a symptom-first and solution-first narrative. We will keep expanding our offerings to more such relevant areas making full use of our global learnings juxtaposed with the Indian consumer insights.
What are the key challenges that exist in this segment? What needs to be done to improve the status?
One big challenge is the access to affordable healthcare, especially in small towns and rural areas, where there is only 1 pharmacist for every 4,000 people. Increasing the availability of over-the-counter (OTC) healthcare solutions and using all possible channels to reach underserved populations is crucial. Second challenge is the availability of the right healthcare information. Major unlocking of growth in this segment will happen only if we empower the people to take charge of their own health by having adequate and accurate information about all of their health hiccups and also about the self-care
products available for the same. There is hence an urgent need for more efforts to educate people with the right health information in order to bridge the awareness, knowledge and understanding gap to give people the confidence to self-care and empower them to take charge of their own health.
In India, we also have the challenge of ensuring self-care products and information becomes accessible to people in the underserved segments of the society too. Bayer has recently partnered with Reach52 in rural Karnataka and UP to address healthcare disparities through its Nutrient Gap Initiative, which educates underserved communities on the importance of micronutrients. Currently this is at a pilot stage and we plan to scale this up going forward. Lastly, improving health literacy, accessibility, and affordability requires collaboration between private and public stakeholders. A clear OTC policy can help by providing uniform guidelines, enhancing consumer awareness, and reducing misinformation and malpractices in healthcare.
