Elder Pharma to step up rural focus

MUMBAI: Elder Pharmaceuticals is increasing its focus on the rural market. The Mumbai-based company that largely makes active pharmaceutical ingredients, plans to increase its sales by 8-9% mainly from rural areas and has allocated Rs 40 crore to strengthen the sales force for this segment, director Alok Saxena told ET.

Mid-sized drug maker, which has mainly been an urban-centric company, has seen an increase in prescriptions from smaller cities, a trend that prompted their entry into this segment, Mr Saxena added. Elder Pharma had, last quarter, set up a rural marketing division, Elvista, to tap this segment.

���We plan to increase Elvista���s marketing strength to about 750 people by 2012,��� said Mr Saxena. ���There is a lot of potential in tier three and four markets and in rural markets also, that we are planning to explore. In the first year, we aim to increase our revenue by Rs 50-60 crore from rural markets alone,��� he added.

Rural markets, at present, account for 21% of the total pharma market in the country. But by 2015, it is estimated that the rural pharma market will account for 27% of the Rs 90,000-crore pharma market.

The company plans to tap the market via ���taxi tours��� where vans stocked with medicines will visit doctors in rural areas to enable them to re-stock their in-house pharmacies.

���The second move is to get into the distribution model with smaller pharmacies in the tier three and four cities, while improving skills of rural doctors by arranging for visits by city doctors in interior areas for training can also be the last step,��� Mr Saxena added.

Elvista is targeting categories such as anti-peptic ulcerates, anti-malaria, anti-infectives, NSAIDS, quinolones and cough medication.

It will be marketing big brands, such as Eldervit injection, as well as niche brands, such as mucodyne, mucobron, protocream and venex. The parent company has a large basket of products for women���s healthcare, pain management and lifestyle diseases, which it plans to market in rural areas by 2012. Elvista is expected to contribute about 15% of Elder���s total revenue by 2012.