BSE Healthcare index of 63 major pharmaceutical and healthcare companies declined sharply by 393.45 points today and closed at 15227.16. This fall is in line with other major industrial indices as BSE Sensex of 30 companies declined by 807.07 points to 22951.83 today. On January 1, 2016, BSE Healthcare index was closed at 16944.55 and BSE Sensex at 26160.90 points. BSE Sensex went down to below 23,000 points today after several months. Thus, within one and half months, BSE Healthcare index lost by 10.1 per cent or 1717.39 points and BSE Sensex by 12.3 per cent or 3209.07 points.

Major pharmaceutical scrips declined sharply includes Aurobindo Pharma by Rs.50.15, Lupin Rs.69.45, Wockhardt by Rs.79.95, Strides Shasun Rs.36.90, Torrent Pharma Rs.52.50, Pfizer Rs.85.05, GlaxoSmithKline Pharma Rs.28.95, Jubilant Life Sciences Rs.47.05, Sun Pharmaceutical Rs.25.66, Biocon Rs.14.45 and Ipca Laboratories Rs.15.50. Similarly, other shares like Glenmark Pharma, Cadila Healthcare, Piramal Enterprises, Granules India also declined. Sanofi India, Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Divi's Laboratories buck the trend and remained positive today.

The financial results of pharma companies for the quarter ended December 2015 were not upto the mark and bottomline of several major companies were under pressure. Even the topline growth is also restricted due to warning letters, sluggish economic conditions in several international markets and volatile exchange rates. Lower than expected returns from R&D investment is also cause of concern of R&D base companies.