Improved US performance to pep up Indian pharma Q1 show

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : The Indian pharma market (IPM), which is estimated to have grown 4.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) in June, will find support from strong performance in the US even as domestic growth rem-ains slow in the June quarter. Analysts at Jefferies India Private Ltd expect strong US but tepid India growth for pharma companies during Q1. In the US, analysts at Jefferies expect sequential improvement for all the major exporters except Cipla.

Referring to the IQVIA prescription and sales data for the US, analysts said Dr Reddy’s has strong sales traction in Revlimid generics and Suboxone (narcotic treatment drug) generics, while Zydus Lifesciences is benefiting from higher sales in Atrovastatin (cholesterol drug) and Revli-mid generics. At the same time, Zydus is facing some price erosion in migraine tre-atment Trokendi XR as new players have entered market. Growth in Q1 was affected by the high base of last year, inclusion of products under the National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) and a decline in prices of certain products under NLEM, said analysts at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Some analysts also attributed the subdued growth to delay in monsoon, in addition to the high base. The IPM had seen a strong 13.8% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth during the same month last year, which was largely led by a strong growth in acute segment sales such as that of antibiotics, pain relief, etc. The delayed mons-oon this year, however, meant that sales of acute segment products was muted in June.

The lower IPM growth in June also impacted the pharma market growth during the April-June quarter. Analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities expect the IPM growth to be at 8.5% year-on-year during Q1 FY24. On a four-year basis, IPM reported