India's top 7 pharma companies

Cipla Laboratories continues to be the largest pharmaceutical company in the domestic market.

Cipla has topped the ORG-IMS rankings for the month of November with a market share of 5.42 per cent and sales of Rs 146.32 crore (Rs 1.463 million), edging out Ranbaxy which stood at second position with 5.09 per cent market share and Rs 137.49 crore (Rs 1.374 million) sales.

In October, Cipla topped with Rs 152.04 crore (Rs 1.520 billion) sales and a market share of 5.23 per cent, ahead of Ranbaxy, which garnered Rs 148.40 crore (Rs 1.484 million) sales and 5.11 per cent market share, said sources.

Cipla overtook Ranbaxy and GlaxoSmithKline India to become the largest pharmaceutical company in the domestic market for the first time in May 2007.

While GSK has maintained its number three position in November, Zydus Cadila (fourth), Alkem Laboratories (fifth) and Sun Pharma (sixth) have moved one rank up from October.

Nicholas Piramal, which faced raw material shortages for its largest selling codiene based formulations, like Phensydyl, in recent months, slipped three positions to number seven in November.

ORG-IMS, the largest market intelligence company in India focusing on the healthcare sector, tracks sales of Indian pharmas on a monthly basis, through over 3,000 stockists and 6,000 doctors.

"Indian companies are increasing their share in the domestic market mainly due to increased number of high value new introductions, though the number of new introductions have reduced recently," Shailesh Gadre, managing director, ORG-IMS, said in an interview last week.

Ranbaxy's growth has been largely driven by new introductions such as Volix, an anti-diabetes drug launched in January, Oframax-Forte and anti-asthmatic drug Synasma, which it in-licensed from Eurodrug Laboratories.

Ranbaxy's antibiotic Mox (amoxyllin), which was not among the top ten brands a year ago, has grown to become the fourth largest brand in the domestic market with monthly sales at Rs 9.8 crore (Rs 98 million) in November, sources said.

Cipla's growth was powered by positive growth in their existing portfolio, especially its respiratory products.

However, GSK has lost market share mainly in its main portfolios such as anti- infectives, dermatologicals and pain management drugs which grew slower than the market for these products, ORG-IMS said.

ORG-IMS named Alkem Laboratories as the only company among the top ten for which both older products (10 per cent) and new introductions (12 per cent) have contributed significantly to value growth.

"Our growth in the domestic market is mainly due to the growth of our anti-infective Taxim and other brands such as Taximo, Clavem, A to Z and Gemcal," explained Vinod Dua, head, domestic business of Alkem Laboratories.

Alkem's Taxim is now the third largest brand in the domestic market with sales of Rs 10.3 crore (Rs 103 million), behind Pfizer's cough syrup Corex (Rs 15.2 crore (Rs 152 million)) and Novartis India's pain killer Voveron (Rs 11.6 crore -- Rs 116 million).