Pharma sector cries foul over GST hit on July sales

The pharmaceutical sector has seen a decline in sales in July 2017.

The All India Organisation of Chemists and Druggists (AIOCD) data shows that the sector registered a negative growth of 2.4 per cent and sales worth Rs 9,280 crore for the month of July, as compared to last month, due to the impact of the goods and services tax. This is as compared to 7.52 per cent positive growth in June.

In fact, the sector has seen downward growth for the last three quarters due to external factors, AIOCD said.

Some of the therapies that saw negative growth are anti-infective, vitamins and gastro-intestinal drugs. Anti-infectives are showing double-digit decline in growth at 15.8 per cent, while dermatology is still posting a positive growth of 7 per cent. However, gastro intestinal and vitamins have declined for the month of July posting de-growth of 1.9 per cent and 2.3 per cent, respectively.

The respiratory market posted de-growth of 16.2 per cent. Anti-malaria drugs de-grew at 36.6 per cent and VMS (vitamins, minerals and supplements) market posted a decline of -2.3 per cent.

All these therapies showed positive growth in the previous month.

In June, the fixed dose combination (FDC) market showed a downward growth. This constitutes 40 per cent of the Indian pharma market. “FDC-related market showed a negative growth of 23.3 per cent while the non-FDC market also showed a negative growth of 1.9 per cent,” said AIOCD.

Some individual companies, such as Abbott and Zuventus, did grow positively. Abbott India grew at 10.1 per cent in July, Zuventus grew at 5.3 per cent, and Emcure grew at 2.8 per cent. However, leading drug firms posted a negative growth.

Sun Pharmaceuticals portfolio came down by 6.5 per cent, Ranbaxy portfolio fell by 4.5 per cent, Cipla fell by 11 per cent and Pfizer by 11.9 per cent.