35: The Medicine Box: JB Chemical's Nikhil Chopra on factors driving domestic pharma market’s growth

India’s pharma market, which comprises chronic and acute medication, is poised for growth. The domestic market grew from $17 billion in FY17 to $21 billion in FY21.

In this edition of The Medicine Box Podcast season 5, CNBC-TV18’s Ekta Batra speaks to Nikhil Chopra, the CEO of JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd, about how big the chronic and acute market is in India, the competition from generic medicines, and the pharma firm’s plans for the near future.

According to Chopra, consumer awareness about wellness and immunity has risen in the past 24 months, the majority of which includes the COVID-19 pandemic period, he said.

Acute therapy, which includes anti-infectives, gastro, vitamins, etc, saw a decline during the period as more people were indoors and hence fewer caught infections. Now, given a gradual return to normalcy, besides recovery in acute therapy, Chopra believes chronic therapies, which include medication for cardiovascular, metabolic diseases, etc., could grow and beat the domestic market growth.

JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Ltd generates 49 percent of its revenue from the domestic market and has outperformed the industry growing 14 percent in FY21 against the industry growth of 4 percent. The CEO said the company is beating the industry due to strong brands in the Indian market. And, it is looking to improve its ranking from its current 27th position in the domestic market.

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