In the wake of Medical Council of India (MCI) regulating marketing activities, Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) regulating FDCs and introduction of new Drug Price Control Order (DPCO), Indian Drug Manufacturers Association (IDMA) organised a conference under the theme –Current Challenges and Opportunities in Pharma Market in in Mumbai recently to create awareness and a level playing field for professionals working in small and medium enterprises.

With over 700 companies under its fold, IDMA has made several representations to government in order to bring better coordination between Health Ministry and Department of Pharmaceuticals for bringing more clarity in the context of the new pricing policy and MCI guidelines.

Said Vinay Pinto, chairman, marketing sub committee and executive director of Wallace Pharma, “Many of today’s big Indian pharma companies were SMEs about 20 years ago. Now that the government has executed a more rationale and market based approach to drug pricing in the country, branded generics from small and medium enterprises will have a better chance for growth.”

Echoing similar views, Narayan Gad, director, Gadtech said that the new DPCO will help the industry immensely as it will bring good competition in the market and make professionals come out with good marketing practices. He emphasized that the new MCI guidelines need to be followed by the physicians and professionals with a conscience to benefit all the stakeholders.

“The government should actively move towards the formation of a separate ministry of pharmaceuticals for seamless service to the industry for implementation of laws and good governance,” Pinto emphasised. He further shared his plans that IDMA will soon help make expensive market and prescription data available to micro and small pharma companies at affordable rates so that smaller companies can benefit from the same market insights currently only available to bigger companies.

Sharing his experience on marketing strategies, Salil Kallianpur, commercial head, CVM, Virology, Oncology and Biosimilars, GSK pinpointed that value is important for the consumer and that marketing practices should be based on creating strong value creation and not on pricing in the context of the top 20 brand’s sales declining due to patent expiry. The current trend is that companies are now spending more on marketing than Research and Development.

Athul Hadap, SBU head, Ranbaxy said that following best practices in management of Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) can help build and promote brands in a better way.

Talking about the importance of digital marketing in the promotion of pharma brands, Priti Mohile, managing director, MediaMedic Communications Pvt Ltd explained, "With over 243 million internet users in India, pharma brands are today growing with the help of digital media. Besides initiatives like E - Mamta by Gujarat Government, social media is today being used for organ donation. Many diseases like Cholesterol, Diabetes, Blood Pressure, Stroke, Hypertension features in over a lakh worldwide web searches globally."