Marketing Management ISSN : 2230-9667

“CHALLENGES OF PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETING IN

INDIAN CONTEXT”
Dr. Mahesh K. Karajgikar
B.Pharm,MBA(Mktg.),DLL,PGDHHM,PGDCR,PGDMLS,PGDHIM,PGDMT,PGDQ
MHHO,Ph.D.
CEO – Waleed Pharmacy & Stores LLC/Medical & Scientific Supplies LLC.
Muscat, Sultanate of Oman
Email: umaheysh@gmail.com

ABSTRACT
The Pharmaceutical Industry in India is among highly organized sectors in India. The
globalization has made the healthcare sector more aware and conscious about the
qualitative results. The international standards are now changed and the national
producers of the medicines are to make their product more competitive and also
affordable. The main feature of the pharma industry is that it is science and technology
based. The marketing of the pharma product is a complex process as it is more related
to the lives of the human being. So the education of pharma sales personnel is
extremely important. The pharma industry in India ranks third in the world. This third
number has to be related with technology, quality and range of the medicines
manufactured. The nature of the pharmaceutical industry is sometime termed as simple
but many a times complex. The pharma business has to build up the confidence in the
customers and to educate the customers for the proper use of pharma products at a
proper time is very important. This is because the healthcare business is subject to the
life of individual and at the same time the increase in the quality life of the pharma
business is complex only. The pharma marketing is complex need special attention.
Indian pharma business is growing @10% per year from 2013 and has better prospects
in future. But it needs special attention and has to work more for the society at large.
The investment in R & D section needs to be increased. This is because the pharma
marketing is different from all other marketing concepts. The rules and regulations
should be made easier by the government in order to apply these regulations at ease.
This will help the pharma industry to grow. Continuous education of marketing team is
the main criteria for updating the knowledge of the marketing team. This will provide
the doctors additional knowledge. Thus the Indian pharma business has excellent
prospects because of its demographic nature. Increased middle class families,
awareness of health related problems and the role of insurance companies.
Keywords: Demographic composition, Science and technology, net-exchange earner,
MNCs, ethics, DPDO, geographical boundaries. E-detailing.

1. Introduction
The Pharmaceutical Industry in India is among highly organized sectors in India. The
globalization has made the healthcare sector more aware and conscious about the
qualitative results. The international standards are now changed and the national
producers of the medicines are to make their product more competitive and also
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affordable. The pharma industries should follow the 3 Cs – Competitive, Careful and
Cautious for its application. The Research and Development has to work more in this
direction. There are about 250 to 300 companies working in organized sector in
pharmaceutical industries in India. The top 10 companies in India represent 37% of the
total Indian Pharmaceutical Market. Including the Small Business houses working in
the pharma sector the total such business houses are up to 20000. The majority of the
India’s demand is met by local manufacturing sector. The Indian pharma market has
achieved tremendous growth in recent years. The growth in infrastructure development
and technology are the areas which are to be more concentrated. Taking into
consideration the demographic composition of India, the increase in middle class
population, healthcare awareness, and application of insurance policies has now
increased the demand for pharma products. However, the increase in the rules and
regulations by government, insurance in global competition, use of technology, the
Research & Development concept has brought up the tense competition and lot of
competition in pharma marketing. The barriers and hurdles in pharma marketing are
hence to be studied in detail. Especially in the light of modern society where per capita
income of India is increasing.
2. Present Scenario of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry
The main feature of the pharma industry is that it is science and technology based. The
marketing of the pharma product is a complex process as it is more related to the lives
of the human being. So the education of pharma sales personnel is extremely important.
The pharma industry in India ranks third in the world. This third number has to be
related with technology, quality and range of the medicines manufactured.
The Indian manufacturers have applied various marketing strategies such as
implementation of Joint Ventures in the field of manufacturing and marketing with
multi-national companies, to implement newer technologies, world class quality and
amenities for bulk drug products, conducting clinical trials etc. This has mainly two
fold impact (1) Basis for Reduction in the cost (2) the use of scientific methods in the
production rigorously. The present turnover of pharmaceutical industries is about Rs.
43,000 crores. The companies like Ranbaxy, Abbott, Cipla, GSK, Pfizer, Torrent are
some of the major Indian pharmaceutical companies. The Pharma industry in India has
a history of its establishment since 1901. Since then there is a consistent growth in
pharma industry. Presently it is a source of net exchange earner, and is strongly
representing the presence in Global marketing and manufacturing scenario. Presently
there are more than 24,000 registered licensed pharmaceutical companies 465 bulk
drugs used in India of which 425 are manufactured in India. The market share however
can be stated as follows:

Category Anti- Gastro Cardiac Respiratory Vitamin Pain

Infective Intestinal killer
Market 10.9 10.9 10.3 10.2 9.6 9..5
share %
Category Dermatology Gynecology Neuro Anti- Ophthalmology others
Psychiatry diabetic

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Marketing Management ISSN : 2230-9667
Market 5.4 5.3 5.3 4.4 1.7 16.5
share %
Total 100%
3. Introduction & Nature of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry
a) The main feature of Indian pharmaceutical companies is that they possess excellent
chemistry and engineering skills.
b) The competitive advantage is the cause of growth.
c) The labour in Indian pharma companies like other industries in India is available at
relatively cheaper price compared to European countries.
d) The MNCs in Indian pharma sector, are hence increasing regularly.
e) The Research and Development wing is getting more and more importance and
comparatively the increased investment in this context.
f) More than 20000 companies are working in Indian pharma sector with 300 are in
organized sector in large scale and 7000 to 8000 are in small scale sector.
g) India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally. Indian pharmaceuticals,
supplies over 50 per cent of global demand for various vaccines, 40 per cent of
generic demand in the US and 25 per cent of all medicine in UK. Presently over 80
per cent of the antiretroviral drugs used globally to combat AIDS (Acquired
Immune Deficiency Syndrome) are supplied by Indian pharmaceutical firms.
h) In August 2018, the market grew by 8.7 per cent year-on-year. In 2017, Indian
pharmaceutical sector witnessed 46 merger & acquisition (M&A) deals worth US$
1.47 billion.
i) Indian pharma companies rank 3rd in terms of volume and 12th in terms of global
pharma industry.
j) The exports of Indian pharmaceutical industry to the US will get a boost, as
branded drugs worth US$ 55 billion will become off-patent during 2017-2019.
k) The pharma industry has to concentrate on providing quality life of human being.
l) The pharma business makes smarter use of its resources and tries to meet out
maximum needs of its customers.
m) Because of large size of pharmaceutical sales force in India, the team of sales
personnel has to follow significant business challenges.
n) The pharma industry in production and marketing must have to follow the proper
ethics.
o) The use of Internet has provided challenge before pharma industry and marketing as
the customers are getting ready information about healthcare.
p) High economic growth along with increasing penetration of health insurance to
push expenditure on healthcare and medicines in India.
q) Government of India’s “Pharma Vision 2020” aims to make India a global leader in
manufacturing sector.
r) Private sector is increasing its investments in R&D and acquisitions are accelerating
the growth.
The nature of the pharmaceutical industry is sometime termed as simple but many a
times complex. The pharma business has to build up the confidence in the customers
and to educate the customers for the proper use of pharma products at a proper time is

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Marketing Management ISSN : 2230-9667
very important. This is because the healthcare business is subject to the life of
individual and at the same time the increase in the quality of life.

4. Hurdles in pharma marketing

The pharma industry has a complex nature. The company commercializes their
products. The patient who is the consumer has least to say. So the production being
consumed on Trust of Doctors and the belief and faith on Pharma Company the
consumer is always using the pharma product. Accordingly the 05 fundamental
complexities of the pharma commercial products can be stated as follows:
4.1 Customers have no direct relationship with producers:
On behalf of patient the production company and the team of marketing people
educated the doctors, chemists, hospitals, policy makers and insurance companies. The
end users are patients (consumers) are not directly educated by the company or the
marketing people. So keeping trust on the Doctors, Chemists and producers the patient
consumes the product and also pays for that. Thus patient is not only consuming the
product but he is indirectly financing the company. That is why the main concern of the
marketing people is to educate the stakeholders appropriately. This will result in
building the trust among the various concerned parties such as produces – chemists –
hospitals – doctors – patients. The pharma company has to ensure the smooth supply of
product, educate the stakeholders, build the confidence in public, and develop their own
brand and to provide reasonable product at reasonable price. The indirect relationship
has to be concentrated as such relationship will help build trust in product. Trust is the
pre-requisite of any marketing channel. Especially in the era of the globalization when
multiple choices are available pharma marketing is to reconstruct the Trust and belief in
the patients. The present scenario of the pharma business worldwide has important
concept of sustaining in the market by making our own brand name more and more
acquainted in the market arena.
4.2 Multiple messengers / stake holders:
Each pharma brand can have five types of messages, clinical, marketing, pricing,
medical, and efficacy. This should also be related to compliance of the regulatory
guidelines issued by the government. The pharmaceutical industry in India has been
largely driven by regulatory forces – the DPCO (Drug Price Control Order) which has
regulated the prices of bulk drugs and formulations and the Indian Patent Act which
granted process patent to bulk drugs in the past and product patent from January 2005
onwards. This is also the outcome of WTO agreed by the Government of India in the
year 2005. As a part of the trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) the
pharmaceutical industry will have the right to patent products as well as processes
throughout the world including India. The main purpose of the TRIPS is to ensure that
the right of innovator is protected. With this the MNCs are increasing their presence in
Indian pharma scenario this has poised challenge before Indian Pharma Industry.
4.3 Attaining the Excellence:
The function of marketing is to expand the market but more of that is to educate the
stakeholder through excellence in production. The sustainability in the market is largely
dependent on the quality and excellence of the pharma product. The allopathic product
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is largely associated with its side effects accordingly there is a need of explaining
negligible presence of side effects and maximum utility through excellence in its
product. The existence of the brand name for a longer time in the market will prove its
optimum and proper use apart from its cost. This building of brand name in market has
its own association with the excellence. The pharma marketing in its own has in built
existence of excellence in production. The growth of brand name is dependent on the
quality and price. The long term association of brand with the trust of the customer
(patients) can only define the excellence of the product and its Trust worthiness.
4.4 Lack of personalization:
The pharma business marketing has been impersonal it is not directly related to end
user (consumer) i.e. patient. The patients are connected through Doctors, Hospitals,
clinics and the Chemists. The regulatory environment restricts companies’ abilities to
establish strong relationships with the individual persons/customers, that is even
sometimes prohibited in certain global markets and even communication is also
prohibited so there is lack of personalization in communication and messaging. The
growth of any market is because of development of personalized relations with the
customers. The nature of pharma business is such that the consumers are away from
the producers and lack the personal relationship. So it is termed as impersonally
personal. The growth of pharma business is largely depending upon the reaction of its
stakeholder of the pharma business. Accordingly the role of pharma business is not
only to provide appropriate products to patients but to create communication.
4.5 lack of up gradation of product:
Intellectual property rights on patents last for 20 years and often still take more 8 to 10
years to gain approval. So up-gradation is very difficult process. The company can
change packaging, dose but not up-gradation. So up-gradation of products is very
difficult in pharma products. In fact the Research and Development department is
efficiently functioning in pharma business. Still up-gradation is not easily possible. The
consistent growth in modern techniques of the medical treatment results in the new
techniques and methods. But then the up-gradation cannot be easily adopted. The role
of pharma business is to abide by the rules and regulations laid down by the
government depend upon the essentialities of the social requirements of the country as
a whole. Hence pharma business is less the business but more the social work. This
generate excellent healthcare environment.
Thus the hurdles to overcome in pharma marketing are regulatory laws, self-regulatory
guidelines, issues relating to trust, communication with patients and newer technology.
5. Challenges in Pharmaceutical Marketing
The macro-environment challenges are largely related to the patient population, age,
gender, education level, and shift in patient population, income level and pattern of
diseases. The today’s social media has an impact on pharmaceutical marketing. The
India has demographic dividend, but then it is favorable as well as adverse effect on
pharmaceutical marketing.
The new pharmaceutical pricing policy, the DPCO 2013, the national list of essential
Medicines (NEM) Compulsory Licensing, Approval of new drugs has also resulted in
challenges before pharma marketing. 90% of the Indian market is composed of branded
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generics. The competition poses major challenges for pharmaceutical marketing in
India.
The marketing challenges of MNCs and SMEs are different. Pricing decision itself can
be the major challenge as it is related to market conditions and internal objectives of the
company.
The Pharma industry cannot be bound by the national geographical boundaries. The
global conditions relating to pharma products must be considered. Because the pharma
marketing is growing faster there is a possibility of shortage of skilled talent. The
requirement of the talented persons is very high presently in the global scenario.
The growing population of middle class families in India makes the scope of
improvement of the quality of life wider. The manufacturing structure, logistics,
distribution channel, understanding consumer needs can be stated to be the challenges
before pharma marketing in the changing global scenario. The customer needs and
preferences should be given top priority by the pharmaceutical industries.
6. Suggestions to overcome hurdles and challenges in pharma marketing.
a. The Research & Development department must be provided with higher provision
of funds. This has to take into consideration the changing pharma industry scenario.
b. The digital opportunities must be tapped by the pharma business. The emergence of
new media the technologies in recent years is quickly changing the pharmaceutical
marketing landscape in the United States. Both physicians and users are increasing
their reliance on the internet as a source of health and medical information. This
lead to pharmaceutical marketers to look at digital channel for further opportunities
to reach the targeted consumer.
c. Continuing Medical Education (CME) can be the Source to make our consumer and
customers aware of the changing technologies and drugs. So it is essential in the
present scenario to keep all related persons in pharma market updated.
d. The no see physician can widely be contacted through E- detailing. Now a days by
means of modern technology the contacts can be easily established. 23% of the
primary care physicians and 28% specialists prefer computer based e-detailing.
e. Key opinion leaders (KOL) or thought leaders are respected individuals. They
influence physician through their professional status. They can get excellent
marketing feedback. Pharma companies identify key opinion leaders through
survey. So the pharma companies necessarily undertake services of these top
personnel such as KOL or thought leaders.
f. The pharmaceutical companies should concentrate on CSR (Corporate Social
Responsibilities). This makes the company connected with society at large.
g. The growth of the pharmaceutical industry must be need based. The Indian context
as compared to world scenario is different but it should be correlated to the world
scenario. Because we cannot ignore the changes in health care industry all over the
world. Neither we should not be reluctant from adopting newer and newer changes
in this area.
7. Conclusion
1. The pharma marketing is complex need special attention.

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2. Indian pharma business is growing @10% per year from 2013 and has better
prospects in future. But it needs special attention and has to work more for the
society at large.
3. The investment in R & D section needs to be increased. This is because the pharma
marketing is different from all other marketing concepts.
4. The rules and regulations should be made easier by the government in order to
apply these regulations at ease. This will help the pharma industry to grow.
5. Continuous education of marketing team is the main criteria for updating the
knowledge of the marketing team. This will provide the doctors additional
knowledge.
6. Thus the Indian pharma business has excellent prospects because of its
demographic nature, increased middle class families, awareness of health related
problems and the role of insurance companies.
Reference:
1. FICCI position paper – Enhancing India’s global role in supply of generic
medicines. India pharma summit 2013-14, p.g. 6
2. PWC- Report India pharma changing landscape of Indian Pharma Industry, 2013.
P.g.6
3. Patel Daara – Secretary General IDMA – Affordable efficacious medicines all
roads lead to India – 4th Sino-India Forum Finished drugs export China – 2013.
4. www.pharmawisdom.com
5. The editorial Board (27-11-14) Drugs Ads, New York Times.

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