[Ip-health] Indian pharma companies going slow on drug launches

[Eleanor Blume]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
  The Economic Times
*Pharma companies going slow on drug launches*
22 Jul 2008
     NEW DELHI: In what is seen as a fallout of the product patent regime,
drug makers are launching lesser number of brands in the Rs 33,000-crore
domestic pharma retail market. For the two-year period ended March 2008, th=
e
total number of drugs launched in India has come down to 4,700 from 4,830
for the two-year period ended March, 2005. Also, most of the drugs launched
in the last two years are not new molecules but combination and new forms o=
f
existing molecules.

Incidentally, companies have also not been able to rake in much revenue fro=
m
their new brands. Around 10,000 drugs were launched between April 2003 to
March 2005 and between April 2006 to March 2008, but about 100 or 1% of the=
m
managed to cross sales of Rs 4 crore annually, according to a study by
market-based consultancy firm ORG IMS.

The highest number of drugs, 646 brands, were launched in the anti-infectiv=
e
segment =97 the largest thereupatic segment =97 in the last two years. The =
least
number of drugs, 108 brands, were launched in the anti-diabetes segment.

Traditionally, new drugs have been the major driving force behind the growt=
h
of companies, but those days may be over. "As the window for the pre-95
molecules becomes smaller, lesser number of drugs are being launched. For
example, only four new molecules were launched in the anti-diabetic segment
over the last four years. The trend is expected to continue in the coming
years also. Companies will have to focus on augmenting their existing brand=
s
and increasing their penetration in smaller town and cities," ORG IMS India
MD Shailesh Gadre said.

Top brands continue to garner a significant portion of the domestic market.
The country's top selling drug Novartis' Voveran posted sales of Rs 143.5
crore for the year-ended May, up 13.3%, followed by Pfizer's Corex, which
notched up Rs 142.8 crore, also up 5.7%.