NEW DELHI: The domestic pharmaceutical retail market is showing its strongest signs yet of a shift from price-led to demand-led growth. Volume growth crossed 3% in June, the first time in 24 months after hovering at around 1-2% during the first five months of the year.
Encouraged by the strong trend during Jan to June, the growth outlook for the industry is being revised upwards from the earlier 8-9% level to over 11% this year, Sheetal Sapale, vice president, at Pharmarack, a market research firm, told TOI.
Last year, the pharma retail market had posted 8% growth. For much of 2024 and 2025, volume growth remained in negative territory, before turning positive this year.
The trend typically points to more patients being brought for treatment and stronger uptake of existing therapies, rather than growth being driven largely by price increases and new medicine launches.
The growth in the over Rs 2.5 lakh crore market in June was led by higher sales of lipid-lowering and cardiac therapies, reflecting faster diagnosis and treatment of heart-related ailments, data culled from Pharmarack showed. Cardiac-metabolic, nutritionals, pain management, dermatology and gynaecology therapies have shown a marked improvement compared with six months ago, according to the data.
The organised pharma retail market posted an over 13% value growth, led by all therapies registering a robust growth. Anti-neoplastics (anti-cancer) and vaccines stood out, registering double-digit growth in both value and unit sales, reflecting strong underlying demand rather than pricing alone.
Further, chronic therapies continued to outpace the overall market, highlighting a sustained demand, driven mainly by the prevalence of lifestyle diseases.
