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Domestic Pharma monthly growth maintains strong trajectory

ICICIdirect Research 13 Mar 2026 DISCLAIMER

In the backdrop of middle-east crisis with Nifty down ~6% over the last 1 month, Pharma stocks have remained resilient with Nifty Pharma up almost ~7% in the similar period. One of the key reasons we believe would be the growth consistency of the domestic Pharma market.
Domestic Pharmaceuticals registered an impressive growth of 12.4% for the month of February 2026 on YoY basis to ₹ 21,108 crore. This was on the heels of ~12% YoY growth for the month of January 2026 and ~15% growth in December 2025.
On a trailing twelve months basis, the growth stood at ~ 10% to ₹ 2,54,427 crore, which is trending above the 7-9% range of expectations.
Chronic therapies which are life-long in nature grew 17% during the month whereas Acute therapies, which are seasonal and incidental, grew 10%.
Therapy wise, cardiovascular and anti-diabetic posted highest growth of 17% and 16% respectively followed by Vitamin at 15% and Gynecology at 12%.
Highest growth amongst covered top listed players during the month as per the data was recorded by Ajanta Pharma - 16%; Sun Pharma - 15%; Ipca Labs, Lupin, Torrent Pharma and Dr Reddy - 14% each.
This is the third consecutive month of strong IPM growth mainly driven by increased patient volumes, higher offtake of high-value brands (diabetic), increased penetration of players in to tier II-VI towns via MRs and distributors addition and continued traction from chronic therapies in general and Cardiology / Diabetology in particular.
We expect domestic Pharma to remain in good stead with multiple tailwinds. Besides the growing instances of lifestyle related diseases which support the growth in diabetology and cardiovascular, we expect decent opportunities panning from the new-aged obesity drugs.
With the impending implementation of schedule M by the government, which mandates stricter manufacturing norms, we expect non-compliant small players to vacate the manufacturing space. We believe this provides additional opportunity of ₹75,000 crore (~30% of the IPM) for established domestic players.
Top picks with a strong focus on domestic formulations-Sun Pharma, DRL, Ajanta Pharma, Ipca Labs, Pfizer, P&G Health

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