India’s medicine sales grow in double digits for four straight quarters, led
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Over the past four quarters, India's medicine sales have increased significantly due to rising demand in chronic care segments. The growth rate reached 12% year-on-year in the September quarter, showing a positive trend in the industry. Larger pharmaceutical companies have benefited from the shutdown of many non-compliant smaller units. Budgets were also boosted by a reduction in GST on medicines.
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Loading...×Mumbai: Medicine sales in India grew in double digits over the last four quarters, fuelled by a renewed surge in chronic care segments like heart issues, hypertension, and diabetes, an ET analysis showed. Industry experts expect the high growth rate to continue over the next two-three years.The uptick contrasts with a slowing growth trend seen during most of 2025, which hovered around 6%-8%.
According to PharmaTrac, the industry grew 12% year-on-year to Rs 70,180 crore in the September quarter in value terms. The growth rate was 11% in the preceding two quarters and 10% during October-December 2025.
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The third quarter of 2025 saw a growth of 7%.
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The Central Drug Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) ordered shutdown of several hundreds of non-compliant small and medium scale units over the last two years, and their sales may have shifted to larger players, industry experts explained, noting that PharmaTrac, a prescription sales tracking agency, does not audit small and medium units.
Over 60% of roughly 8,500 small and medium-sized pharma units were feared to face closure due to non-compliance with the revised Schedule M provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetic Rules, 1945.
The growth is also partly attributed to a cut in GST on medicines from 12% to 5% in September last year.
Rajiv Juneja, managing director of Mankind Pharma, told ET that while shares of smaller units may have shifted to bigger players, a key reason for the higher growth is better healthcare facilities and availability of tests and diagnosis of chronic diseases like diabetes and cardiac issues. "People are becoming conscious about their health. A strong demand is also seen in multivitamins and supplements like proteins and magnesium," he said.
Mankind Pharma posted close to 15% rise in its sales for the September quarter at ₹3,657 crore while Torrent Pharma's domestic revenue vaulted by 20% to ₹2,181 crore. India's biggest drugmaker Sun Pharma reported a 17.3% in its domestic formulations sales to Rs 5,552 crore during the same period. Its domestic business accounted for 34.5% of consolidated sales.
Amit Bakshi, managing director of Eris Lifesciences, which is among the leading players in anti-diabetes drugs, said growth came on category-building efforts in cardiovascular, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease segments. "The growth may reflect changes in how trade generics and smaller or untraceable companies are captured in market data, as well as greater scrutiny of spurious and duplicate drugs. These are possible explanations rather than individually established causes," he added.
Bakshi noted that the audit agency records prescription data without identifying companies and includes them in the 'untraceable' or 'others' category. "This category was around 12-13% at one point a few years ago, but the current figure needs to be checked. If these factors persist, they could support an additional 2-3 percentage points of structural growth," he said.
Vishal Manchanda, pharma sector specialist at Systematix, said the growth over the last four quarters is not broad-based. It is being driven largely by chronic therapies such as oncology, cardiology and diabetology, while segments such as anti-infectives are not showing much growth, he said.
"If you look at a few companies, the picture is different," Manchanda said. "Cipla reported 12% quarterly growth, but excluding the inorganic contribution, its growth would be around 6-8%. Smaller companies such as Indoco reported a relatively lower growth in India... The real momentum is coming from chronic therapies, which had not contributed significantly to market growth over the preceding two to three years."
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Figures reflect the source report and its stated period. This article is for information and is not investment advice.
