Consumer healthcare products have been the focus of the market lately. In 2018, Zydus Cadila bought Kraft Heinz’s consumer brand businesses, which include Complan. Hindustan Unilever acquired GlaxoSmithKline Consumer’s blockbuster brands Horlicks, Boost and Maltova. Strides Consumer Pvt Ltd (SCPL), in which pharma major Strides Pharma Science holds 26 per cent equity, with India Life Sciences Fund owning the remaining 74 per cent, claims to have brought in differentiated, customised products for the Indian market. In a conversation with BusinessLine , Subodh Marwah, CEO, SCPL, spoke about the consumer healthcare products market in India and the company’s plans. Excerpts:

Why is there an increasing focus on consumer healthcare products? What is its market size in India, and where is it headed?

Globally, consumer healthcare has been an industry which has been around for quite some time, and it is driven by a few macro-economic factors. The biggest driver is self-selection. This is the choice that consumers make, where they can buy products themselves. With the increasing levels of awareness and education, consumers feel comfortable and are confident of making the right choice.

Given our medical systems right now, there is a lot of pressure on both doctors and patients. Therefore, for common ailments, self-medication has become increasingly popular, as consumers possess the knowledge. This is because of the rise of the internet which has led to access to information. Players operating in the space look at consumer-centric and solutions-driven products to benefit from the opportunity. Additionally, the awareness on wellness and the momentum to live healthy lives have been the key drivers of the industry.

The consumer healthcare segment in India is headed in the right direction. It has just touched the tip of the iceberg and the penetration in many categories is very low. The size of the consumer healthcare market is about ₹27,000 crore (over $3-3.5 billion, as per Euromonitor Research). It is one of the fastest-growing industries in India, growing at a CAGR of 10 to 11 per cent year-on-year. The market is expected to reach ₹50,000 crore in the next 7-8 years.

There are a few players in the smoking cessation category. What is your rationale for entering this space?

We are present in the smoking cessation category with our product, Nixit. Today, India has four crore cigarette smokers. A third of them want to quit smoking, but barely 10 per cent of them know that they can actually take the help of an aid to quit smoking. There is so much room for the category to grow. The smoking cessation market is at a very nascent stage. Cipla’s Nicotex, which is available in gum format, leads the market.

While there are others who have forayed into the market, they did not take it seriously. Therefore, we believe we are well-poised and will leverage the opportunity. The market is growing at 25 to 30 per cent every year. We see an opportunity to provide a differentiated product to the market. Nixit comes in the lozenge format, which is a first in this country. Internationally, studies suggest that lozenges give three times better chance at quitting smoking compared to quitting unaided. We have been receiving good feedback from consumers.

Again, there are many pain balms in the market. What is special about JointFlex?

After diabetes and heart diseases, India is fast becoming the arthritis capital of the world, thanks to our sedentary lifestyle. Most of the current products available in the market address only muscle pain, leaving the huge section of joint pain unattended. Joint pain is a recurring form; it is typically chronic pain.

JointFlex, which exclusively addresses the joint pain segment, comes with Glucosamine, a popular ingredient worldover that works more effectively on joints. JointFlex works on the cartilage and delivers complete joint care. It comes with a unique combination of camphor, Glucosamine and Chondroitin Sulphate and expects to give long-term pain relief. Since there is a lack of awareness among consumers between muscle and joint pains, we believe that it is the right time for us to enter the market and educate consumers. There is a brand in the US by the same name. It has been around for over 20 years now.

We have taken inspiration from that brand and did reformulation with Indian customisation in our product. In India, it comes with an ayurvedic formulation. There's a huge need for educating the consumer. So, through mass media channels or digital channels or through forums, we need to educate people. Yes, we have a lot of work to do.

You are present only in the South. Why? Tell us about your expansion plans.

Since our products are unique, we wanted to test-market them and gauge consumer feedback. So we decided to first go to limited markets and make sure that we get it right for our consumers. Strides Consumer is currently present in Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. We will now expand to 50 towns in the South. We will be looking at all towns that have two lakh-plus population. This will take us some time. Later, we will decide on going pan-India.

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