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Mercury soars, and so do sales of rehydration drinks in India

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New Delhi: Amid the sweltering heat, demand for dehydration-preventing drinks has soared in India. According to market research firm PharmaTrac, sales of the widely used brand Electral have seen a sharp 27% rise in March, attributed to "unusually high temperatures" across the country.

The sales of oral electrolytes have risen from ₹85 crore in January to ₹106.5 crore in March this year, the data showed.

The month-on-month growth for brand Electral was highest among other oral electrolytes. Sales zoomed to ₹40 crore in March. The other popular rehydration solution, which is Johnson & Johnson's ORS-L, notched up sales of over ₹9 crore in March, up from ₹6 crore in January this year in the domestic pharma retail market.

On a MAT (moving annual total) basis, the market for dehydration drinks grew to ₹8.5 lakh crore.

"Heatwaves throughout the country have also led to growth of ORS," said Sheetal Sapale, VP, commercial, PharmaTrac said.

While the oral electrolyte market is showing a healthy 5-year CAGR with the growth driven by brand Electral, which contributes to almost 50% of the market. The market is expected to grow during the next few months as the temperatures soar across the subcontinent.

"The market has a seasonality trend wherein the consumption increases from February onwards as the temperatures soar. While monsoons set in around June-July, the consumption stays on a higher side as a lot of water borne diseases spark ailments like dysentery and diarrhoea which also need oral electrolyte consumption during treatment," Sapale added.

Doctors are already seeing an increasing number of cases with digestive problems. Dr Vipulroy Rathod, director-gastroenterology, Fortis Hospital (Mulund), Mumbai, said he was seeing more and more patients in the entire age spectrum, right from the very young people to the elderly with digestive disorders, than a decade ago.

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