India’s leading drug makers keep volume gains while smaller firms falter

Review of PharmaTrac figures indicates that India’s ten largest pharmaceutical firms have maintained positive moving-annual-total (MAT) unit growth every month of 2026, averaging between 1.49% and 1.99%. The cohort includes Sun Pharma, Cipla, Abbott, Mankind Pharma, Torrent Pharmaceuticals, Alkem Laboratories, Intas Pharmaceuticals, Lupin, Zydus Lifesciences and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories. By contrast, firms ranked 11th to 20th began the year with about 0.4% growth, slipped into negative territory in April, and remained there through August.

While overall market value accelerated from 8% to 10.4% year-to-date, the rise is linked to a growing share of chronic and sub-chronic treatments and the rapid adoption of semaglutide by companies with existing GLP-1 capacity. Experts attribute the advantage of larger firms to broader portfolios, stronger brands and deeper penetration into tier-II and tier-III towns.