Slowdown Grips on Pharma Market - An Empirical Study

The Indian pharma industry, while being on a roll due to the higher export realisations due to the weaker rupee, has suffered badly in the domestic market. According to the latest data released by market research firm AIOCD AWACS ((a pharmaceutical market research company), the domestic pharma market grew by mere 1.1% for the month of August 2012, which is a record low for the industry. The last low growth experienced in the market was recorded in November 2012 at 4.3%. One of the major reasons for the slowdown seems to be the de-stocking done by the trade and companies due to the uncertainty surrounding the implementation of the new drug pricing control order (DPCO). This is evident from the fact that according to the data, the growth of the DPCO portfolio of products dropped by 12.3% whereas the non-DPCO product market grew by 3.3% resulting in an overall growth of 1.1% for the month of August 2013. This paper highlights the issues and challenges faced by the Indian Pharma industries in context to DPCO.