Market slice
Drug Action Forum-Karnataka has estimated the share of iron supplements in the total pharmaceuticals market. Six retail chemists in Ranebennur, a taluka in Karnataka's Haveri district, were requested to provide figures for sales of preparations containing iron for a two-month period in December 2005-February 2006. It was found to range between 5 and 10 per cent of the total sale of all medicines. The chemists sold drugs worth Rs 173 crore, of which iron supplements were worth Rs 10 crore. When extrapolated to 13,500 chemists in Karnataka, the sales amounted to Rs 100 million per month.