Merck Bets on Hybrid Growth Model in India
German co merges pharma, consumer health
businesses here to build scale
German drug maker Merck has merged its
pharmaceuticals and consumer health businesses as part of a major makeover,
unique to India, aimed at building scale and ramping up local businesses with a
hybrid model.
Merck's
ambition is to push its established primary care and vitamins and mineral
supplements businesses, alongside new launches from its market-leading
fertility and oncology divisions. Its strategy of uniting
the two businesses locally runs counter to some global drug makers that have
separated the two businesses.
The German drug maker, also known to be the
oldest pharmaceutical company in the world and clocked 17% growth on the
12-month MAT from Sept 2015 to Sept2016, is ranked the second fastest growing
multinational drug firm after Janssen in India.
“We
have brought together the portfolios of what we used to call primary care,
mainly vitamins and mineral supplements with the portfolio of our consumer
health divisions which have major leading brands. So we are consumerising the
primary health portfolio. And that will now represent 70% of our business in
India. It is growing very fast and this new approach will be able to capture a
very attractive market and much faster.” said Belen Garijo, global CEO at
Merck, on her second visit to India in as many years.
In biopharmaceuticals, Merck sells Gonal-F for
fertility, Erbitux
for cancer and in cardio-metabolic, Concor is a top selling brand. In the consumer
health business Merck has grown 20%, with sales of `800 crore last year. Its
top brands include Neurobion, Seven Seas, Nasivion and Polybion.
Merck's overall business in India includes,
products under life sciences and material sciences. The total sales stood at
around `2400 crore last year.
The $16-billion drug maker, with a research
collaboration with Pfizer for cancer drugs, is hopeful of launching avelumab
(for lung cancer) globally next year & work with regulatory bodies to make
the drug available in India. Avelumab received breakthrough status from the US
FDA & is undergoing advanced clinical trials in India.
Merck has a busy schedule for new
introductions in India in the next two years. By mid-2018, the company may look
to bring its fertility technologies. In the neurodegenerative diseases, Merck
is likely to add Cladribine in 2018, subject to positive outcome and approvals
in the developed markets. In consumer health, Merck said it may launch `Perfect
Seven Seven Seas Man' and `Perfect Seven Seven Seas Woman' in 2017.
Merck has a collaboration with Lupin, signed
in 2014, to accelerate its general medicine and cardio-metabolic portfolio in
emerging markets. Garijo noted the alliance is moving as planned and both two
sides want to bring products to market in 2018.
Comments
Post a Comment