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Purvita Chatterjee

Mumbai, Oct. 21 The Rs 554-crore Novartis India is targeting a Rs 90-crore turnover this year from its over-the- counter (OTC) division on the back of launching new brands and product offerings.

Pegging growth rates at between 19 and 20 per cent from its OTC division, Mr Vineet Singhal, Head of the OTC Business, Novartis India, said, “We are looking at getting into new areas within our OTC division such as that of pain relief, and there is a possibility of launching a new brand in this area.”

Globally, Novartis has its muscle and body pain relief brand under the name of Voltaren, and there is a possibility of bringing the same brand into the country. Considering that most of OTC brands are from its global portfolio, the Swiss drug company could end up getting in its pain relief brand in the near future.

As Mr Singhal said, “We have yet to decide on what brands we could look at bringing in from our global portfolio. Brands like Calcium Sandoz and Benefibre are our global brands but a brand like T-minic is specific to certain markets like India.”

In fact, there are also brand extensions planned from its cough and cold brand of T-minic, whereby it could be stretched to target adults as well.

While most pharma majors have not been stressing on their OTC brands, Novartis believes the returns are higher in this segment compared with the pharma business. As Mr Singhal said, “We believe in being a consumer-driven company unlike other players who might find it a risky business. There is clear return on costs in the OTC business.”

The restrictive laws on OTC advertising in the country have also been a dampener for most pharma companies trying to expand into this space.

Currently, the pharma company is investing behind re-launching its 40-year-old flagship brand Calcium Sandoz. The white puppy on its pack will now look more colourful and the brand will sport a new packaging, which has been done with the help of its ad agency Saatchi & Saatchi.

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