Mumbai, Aug 8: The Mumbai-based Ipca Laboratories is setting up a new division, Innova, for therapy-focused marketing. The new unit will handle products in the neuropsychiatric and dermatology segments.Sources say that it may take at least three to four months to operationalise Innova and the unit is expected to rope in a full-fledged sales and marketing team of 175 personnel.Ipca's field force, which was over 700-strong as of 1996-97, covers over one lakh doctors, besides catering to over 40,000 retailers across the country. The company's domestic depot network is spread over 17 locations across the country.
The Rs 373 crore Ipca had, in 1997-98, set up a comprehensive cardiac care division christened 3C, to exclusively market drug therapies in the field of cardiology, diabetology and neurology. Analysts say that more and more companies (Glaxo India too has set up separate marketing units) are opting for therapy-specific marketing given that such detailing has a greater impact.
Ipca's current marketing set-up handles a range of products including anti-malarials, anti-bacterials and cough preparations and key brands include Lariago, Laridox, Eltocin, Perinorm, Nemocid, Tenolol, Lisoril and Normax, among others.
Anti-malarials accounted for 30.08 per cent of Ipca's domestic branded formulation sales in 1998-99, while gastro-intestinals, cardiac products and anti-bacterials accounted for 17.40 per cent, 15.96 per cent and 15.79 per cent respectively during that year.
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