Bayer bets big on 'self-care' market to deepen India play

Mumbai: Global pharma major Bayer is accelerating its consumer healthcare push in India with new launches, betting on the country’s fast-growing self-care market, estimated at about Rs 40,000 crore, Sandeep Verma, head of South Asia at Bayer Consumer Health, told ET in an exclusive interaction.

“We believe that self-care can be a very critical pillar” in India’s ambition of becoming “this economic superpower”, Verma said, outlining the company’s sharper India focus.

Bayer, which formally set up its consumer health division in India in 2021, has expanded across pain management, nutrition, dermatology and digestive wellness.


A key part of the latest push is Bayer’s entry into India’s Rs 2,500 crore digestive health market with over-the-counter antacid Alka-Seltzer, a nearly century-old global brand sold in more than 70 countries.

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“Digestive health as a category is almost a two-and-a-half thousand crore kind of category,” Verma said. “When we did some studies, we figured out that almost 70% of Indians, seven in 10 Indians, have at least one digestive ailment every week.”

“We are not just entering this antacid category… we want to enter the digestive wellness category by focusing on gut health,” he said.

A few years ago, Bayer entered India’s dermatology segment with skincare brand Bepanthen.

The company plans to expand distribution of flagship pain management brand Saridon to 350,000 outlets over the next three years from about 200,000 currently. Overall reach is expected to increase to nearly 600,000 chemists, close to half of India’s estimated 1.2 million pharmacies.

Alka-Seltzer will be rolled out to about 100,000 stores over the same period, Verma said. The expansion will be driven by both traditional trade and quick commerce channels, which he said would play a growing role in Bayer’s India strategy.

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India is already the world’s seventh-largest consumer health market and among the fastest growing, according to Verma.

“India will become among the top three markets in the world in the next five years. After the US and China, India will become the third largest self-care or consumer health market in the world,” he said, underscoring the scale of opportunity.

Bayer is targeting 100 million households over the next four years, up from about 45 million currently.

“We want to reach at least 10 crore households in India,” Verma said, adding that the company’s focus was as much on creating categories as gaining market share.

India’s consumer health market has been growing at 7-8% annually, driven by rising health awareness, digital penetration and increasing focus on preventive healthcare, particularly among younger consumers in metros and tier-1 cities.

Verma said lifestyle-related issues such as stress, poor sleep and sedentary behaviour were fuelling demand for preventive health products.

“These changes have not happened just in metros and tier-1… tier-2 cities, tier-3 cities, the rural areas… are all equally impacted,” he added.