Voveran, Novartis India's flagship pain killer medicine, has become the largest selling domestic drug with sales of more than Rs 11 crore (Rs 110 million) in March 2008, displacing Pfizer India's cough and cold syrup Corex, which had sales of Rs 10 crore (Rs 100 million).
Cipla, on the other hand, maintained its leadership position as the largest domestic pharmaceutical company edging out Ranbaxy Laboratories with a market share of 5.24 per cent, according to data provided by ORG-IMS, market research agency, for March 2008.
Voveran, which maintained market leadership for most part of 2007, had lost its top position to Corex in recent months. With sales of Rs 125 crore (Rs 1.25 billion), Voveran was the number one brand according to the year-to-date November 2007 ORG-IMS data, followed by Corex with sales of Rs 124 crore (Rs 1.24 billion) and Himalaya's Ayurvedic drug Liv-52 with sales of Rs 105 crore (Rs 1.05 billion).
According to data for November 2007, Pfizer's cough syrup Corex (Rs 15.2 crore) was the leading brand, way ahead of Voveran's monthly sales of Rs 11.6 crore (Rs 116 million).
ORG-IMS, the largest market intelligence company in India focusing on the healthcare sector, tracks sales of domestic pharma companies on a monthly basis.
With a turnover of Rs 9 crore (Rs 90 million), the data said Novo Nordisk's Human Mixtard 30/70 was the third largest drug brand in March 2008.
Other top-10 drug brands that moved up include Alkem Laboratories' anti-biotic Taxim (4), Pfizer's Becosules, Ranbaxy's anti-infective Mox, and FDC's antibiotic Zifi and Liv-52.
Cipla overtook Ranbaxy and GlaxoSmithKline India to become the largest pharmaceutical company for the first time in the domestic market in May 2007.
Analysts said Cipla's growth was powered mainly by its large domestic product portfolio, especially respiratory products. Ranbaxy's growth was helped by launch of more than a dozen new products and growth in its chronic therapy business.
Cipla had revenues of Rs 452.48 crore in the quarter ended March 31, 2008 with growth of 13.2 per cent over the previous quarter. Its domestic revenues also rose 13.4 per cent to Rs 1,986.72 crore (Rs 19.87 billion) for the financial year 2007-08.
According to Ranbaxy sources, the company registered 23 per cent growth in the domestic market between December 2007 and February 2008 to improve its market share to 5.05 per cent from 4.82 per cent in the previous corresponding period.
Mankind Pharmaceuticals, which was the new entrant in the top 10 companies in February 2008, moved to ninth position in March. Nicholas Piramal also moved up the ladder one rung to the fifth position.
The value of domestic pharmaceutical market stands at Rs 32,096 crore (Rs 320.96 billion), according to the March 2008 data. Valuewise, the market slowed down by 14.7 per cent as compared with a growth of 19.8 per cent in February 2007.
