Reckitt Benckiser (India) Ltd's Disprin Paracetamol and Nicholas Piramal India Ltd's Aspro Plus are fast losing revenues in the market in the wake of growing awareness that these products are paracetamol formulations and do not contain aspirin.
Trade sources say that the products are not moving as they were before though there are still people who come and pick up these brands as some of them still think they are aspirin brands.
Reckitt Benckiser had announced on August 29, 2001, the launch of Disprin Plus and Disprin CV (cardiovascular) while phasing out the 350 mg Disprin tablets. The launch of Disprin CV, which was to be priced at 14 paise per tablet and targeted as a 100-mg aspirin dose, was deferred by the company so as to establish the paracetamol version first.
According to market researchers, Disprin Plus had monthly sales of Rs 5.99 lakh in November 2001, the latest period for which figures are available and showed a growth of minus 95.37 per cent.
In the previous month of October 2001, the sale was much higher at Rs 18.79 lakh when the growth was better, at minus 73.68 per cent. The sale of the Disprin cold and flu version stood at Rs 1.22 lakh in November 2001 and showed a negative growth of 73.17 per cent.
Nicholas Piramal India Ltd's brand Aspro Plus, which registered a sale of Rs 55,715 in the month of November 2001 showed a negative growth of 1.51 per cent. In the previous month of October 2001, it sold for Rs 75,020.
While Disprin Plus sales have gone down drastically, Aspro Plus sales have fallen flat, trade sources claimed.
They said that patients are still taking Disprin Plus for wrong reasons. According to them, such patients do not inform the pharmacist the indication for which they are picking up the strip, the pharmacist does not have the time to ask the patient which Disprin he is looking for and the patient remembers nothing but the brand name Disprin when he goes to the shop.