Covid pushes pharma industry growth to 59% in April

The fresh wave of Covid-19 in the country has pushed up sales of medicines and resulted in exponential growth for the pharmaceutical sector. According to total sales audit data from world's largest pharmaceutical market research firm IMS Health, the Indian Pharma Market (IPM) grew 59 per cent yoy in April, 2021 vs 16 per cent yoy in March, 2021 due to the low base effect in April, 2020 and sharp surge in Covid-19-related sales.

On the MAT (moving annual turnover) basis, IPM grew 9.6 per cent, primarily driven by pricing growth of 4.3 per cent and new product launch growth of 4.6 per cent. Volume growth was muted at 0.8 per cent.

According to a report from Emkay Global Financial Services, all major therapies posted high double-digit growth in April 21.

Within Chronic therapies, Cardiac therapy grew 22 per cent. Similarly Anti-diabetic therapy grew 10 per cent. VMS (vitamins, minerals and supplements) posted record growth of 80 per cent in April 21 vs 27 per cent in March 21. The growth in respiratory therapy rebounded sharply at 64 per cent in April 21 after falling for nine consecutive months.

As per the brokerage, DRL grew the fastest at 79 per cent yoy followed by Cipla (77 per cent yoy) and Cadila (53 per cent yoy). Sun Pharma, Lupin and Ipca Labs reported growth of 30-52 per cent yoy. Other notable outperformers are Glenmark (172 per cent), Aristo (77 per cent), Macleods (69 per cent), and Alkem (82 per cent).

While IPM growth could be strong in the next couple of months, driven by surging Covid-19-related sales and likely impact of stocking up, we believe growth could normalize as Covid-19 would delay normalization, Emkay said.