Understand the OTC Medication Landscape in India

More than 50% of respondents still prefer buying Over-the-counter (OTC) medicines from the Pharmacy store rather than Pharmacy-specific apps.   

Bengaluru, September 2022: Velocity Healthcare, a full-service insights company catering to the healthcare insights needs of marketers, manufacturers & governments, released a research study to understand the OTC medication landscape in the country. The study covered 16 metro & non-metro with a sample aged from 20 to 50+ years to know all factors driving the consumption of OTC medicines among Indians.  

While understanding the consumer journey, the study reveals that D-cold precedes all the other OTC medicines for colds. Similarly, a few other brands, like Dolo, Benadryl, and Digene ranked for fever & pain, cough & acidity.    

The study findings throw several insights into how even after the growth of online pharmacies, Indians believe in buying OTC drugs from offline pharmacies; pharmacists are the main influencing factor in suggesting which medicine to buy among all the available options.    

Further, the study has also examined the drawbacks, benefits, and purchasing frequency of OTC medicines & 78% of OTC consumers strongly believe in its advantages over disadvantages.  

Jasal Shah, Managing Director & CEO, Velocity Healthcare, states, “India is heading towards being a more ‘Atmanirbhar’ economy. Therefore, the healthcare and pharmaceutical businesses must play a larger role in assisting India in achieving self-sufficiency. More than half of OTC medication consumers believe there are no disadvantages to OTC medication. This provides an opportunity & responsibility to pharma companies to act upon providing safe & reasonable drugs. This report also brings insightful data for healthcare businesses to play on the front foot by understanding the people’s perspectives, finding new supply network solutions, and developing essential products that meet unique consumer needs.  

About Velocity Healthcare 

Velocity Healthcare is a tech-upgraded healthcare insights provider that aims to provide reliable & actionable insights backed by quality data from global proprietary healthcare panels in 19+ countries with 150+ medical specialties. The need for healthcare insights has never been realized ever before by marketers, manufacturers & governments. In the pursuit of helping healthcare & allied services, Velocity Healthcare aims to provide reliable & actionable insights backed by quality data from proprietary healthcare panels & technology to add efficiency & reduce redundancies. In a nutshell, we’re the healthcare full-service research agency for end-to-end execution of primary market research.