India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra) opines the 13.7% yoy revenue growth in India's pharmaceutical market (IPM) during July 2021 was led by continued demand normalisation post the high growth months of April 2021 (51.5% growth) and May 2021 (47.8%), while the growth in June 2021 was lower at 14.1%. The higher growth in April and May 2021 was because of the lower base effect and covid-induced demand during the second wave.

The lower-though-healthy growth in July 2021 was witnessed in therapies which have not benefitted from covid-led demand in the past. Therapies which have benefitted from covid-led demand include anti-infectives, gastro and vitamins.

Ind-Ra expects the demand normalisation to continue, if the pace of vaccination remains strong. Ind-Ra expects IPM revenue growth of over 12% yoy for FY22.During 1QFY22, IPM reported growth of 37.2%, aided by the lower base effect during 1QFY21 which was impacted due to the nationwide lockdown. During July 2021, volumes grew 4.5% yoy (June 2021: 4.0% yoy), price growth was 5.7% (5.7%) and new products launches were at 3.5% (4.4%), attributed to acute therapy products.

Acute therapies such as anti-infectives, analgesic and respiratory witnessed sales growth of 30.2% yoy, 24.1% yoy and 22.8% yoy respectively, while gastro grew 19.6% yoy during July 2021. Growth underperformance was observed in chronic therapies during the month, with cardiac and anti-diabetic growing 4.1% yoy and 3.3% yoy, respectively.

During moving annual total (MAT) July 2021, Cipla, Glenmark and Emcure significantly outperformed the market, with yoy growth of 19.4%, 33.9% and 26.1%, respectively. This was led by higher sales of COVID-19 related products and the continued outperformance of chronic therapies.