Becosules to hit Rs 100 cr sales by month end

Narendran Nair C N - Mumbai

The biggest multivitamin brand in the Indian market, Becosules, a Pfizer Ltd product, is expected to hit the century mark in terms of annual turnover by March 2003 end, according to market and industry sources.

This will be the second brand from the MNC to hit a ton, the first one being Corex. Pfizer’s anti-tussive codeine phosphate-based cough syrup Corex had crossed the Rs 100 crore in December 2002 and is positioned at Rs 102 crore and annually growing at the rate 11.28 per cent.

According to a company source, Becosules and its line extension Becosules Plus have recorded a sales of Rs 98.4 crore in the 12 month period January-December 2002, as per wholesale market audit figures. The product is growing at an annual rate of 19.6 per cent. According to analysts, the product is set to cross the Rs 100 crore mark by March 2003. The sale figures for March 2003 are expected only by May 2003.

A leading market researcher told this correspondent that, going by the growth rate, it will not be surprising if the product crosses the Rs 100 crore turnover mark before March 2003.

A study of the performance of the top ten brands during the same period in the Indian market has revealed that seven of the top ten belong to multinational companies.

The first three brands too come from the kitty of MNCs, the third one being Novartis India Ltd’s diclofenac sodium painkiller brand Voveran which has recorded a sales of Rs 95 crore and a growth of 29 per cent.

Indian company Alkem Laboratories Ltd’s cefotaxime sodium brand Taxim, which has grossed Rs 94 crores with a growth of 27 per cent, takes the number four position. Aventis Pharma’s anti-rabies vaccine Rabipur which has recorded a turnover of Rs 79 crore has grown by 32 per cent to take the fifth slot. GlaxoSmithkline Pharmaceuticals’ Betnesol brand comes sixth in the top ten list with a sales of Rs 72 crores and a growth of 8.6 per cent. The seventh rank goes to Augmentin brand from the same Glaxo stable which has recorded a sales of Rs 70 crores and a growth of 53 per cent, the highest growth among the products under this ranking.

The ciprofloxacin brand Cifran of Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd takes the eighth position with a turnover of Rs 67 crores and a growth of 10.30 per cent. Cipla Ltd’s Ciplox, another ciprofloxacin brand, has raked in Rs 65 crores at a growth rate of 48.52 per cent, the second highest in the ten top grossers.

Zantac, a third brand (ranitidine) from GlaxoSmithkline, sold for Rs 64 crores and secured a growth rate of 20.33 per cent, to come tenth in the ranking.