The new marketing strategy of developing integrated disease management system and differentiated price for the Indian market has proven to be an effective strategy for the success of Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD)'s type II diabetes drug Januvia in India, MSD India managing director Naveen A Rao claimed. Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD) India Pvt Ltd is the wholly-owned Indian subsidiary of US-based drug major Merck & Co.

According to the IMS reports, the Januvia (sitagliptin tablets) has reached revenue of Rs 16 crore in the first year of launch. This is double the revenue of sanofi aventis' Amaryl (glimepiride tablets), an oral blood-glucose-lowering drug, which was reported as the first best launch in India, according to MSD India sources. As per the IMS report, Amaryl had almost Rs 8 crore-revenue in the first year of launch in the country almost 10 years back.

"We are glad to inform that Januvia has become the first best product in India to reach such a high revenue in the first year of its launch. This definitely shows that our marketing strategy combined with the philanthropic activities has worked well," said Naveen Rao. The company is also bestowed with the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) Award for Marketing Excellence 2009, in the new product category.

Apparently, the company is going to stick to its marketing strategy of integrated disease management, which it has built up for Januvia, to sell its other new launches in near future. "This proves that doing well and doing good are not entirely different things. The patients need awareness about the lifestyle management. Our disease management system has worked well on this and we will continue similar activities for our future launches too," comments Rao.

He added that the differentiated price for Indian market, which is almost one fifth of the Januvia price in US, has made the drug affordable to the patients, and assured the physicians that the company is looking at the market with a long-term vision.

As the part of its disease management programme, the company has launched Sparsh Healthline - online patient support service - in January 2009. The Sparsh CRM Centre in Hyderabad provides tele-counselling services by trained personnel, based on the needs raised by the doctors, patients and counsellors. The programme covers 2500 patients and 4500 physicians in the country at present. India has Rs 1500 crore diabetes market with 20 per cent annual growth. The oral drug for diabetes consists of 17 per cent of this market and the company is aiming at grabbing the maximum of this market.

The company has also launched Guard Yourself programme in 2008, to spread awareness on cervical cancer and its prevention, providing educational and in-clinic material to the physicians and reminder calls and SMS alerts to the cancer patients. Along with providing awareness, the programme has helped the company to rightly place its cervical cancer drug Gardasil in the Indian market.

MSD India has currently eight products in pipeline, in which drugs for osteoporosis and dyslipidemia will be launched in near future, said Rao. The company will focus more on launch of adolescent and adult vaccines, as it finds a competitive edge on this area, he added.