New Delhi, Jan 22 (IANS): Lower volumes along with fewer number of new launches subdued Indian Pharmaceutical Market (IPM) growth during December 2021 on a sequential basis.

As per India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra), IPM continued to deliver slower growth of 5.3 per cent YoY in December 2021 after growing 6.6 per cent in November 2021.

"The acute therapy segment performed in line with sub-chronic and chronic segments in December 2021," the ratings agency said.

Accordingly, Ind-Ra highlighted that acute segment has been showing a robust performance since March 2021.

"Post normalisation of the high growth months of April 2021 and May 2021 led by the lockdown related lower base last year and higher volume growth, the average IPM growth from June to December 2021 has been healthy.

"In terms of growth drivers, th price growth, new product launches growth and volume growth stood at 5.6 per cent, 2.9 per cent and 6.4 per cent YoY, respectively, during moving annual total, which led to an overall IPM size of Rs 1,671 billion in December 2021," it said.

According to the agency, the acute therapy segment reported sales growth of 5.3 per cent YoY, while chronic and sub-chronic therapy segments reported growth at 4.8 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively, in December 2021.

"During FY21, Ind-Ra highlights that the acute therapy segment reported negative growth on account of Covid-19 while the chronic therapy segment reported average growth of 7 per cent in the same period."