Health Matters- dolo 650: The Burj Khalifa would be dwarfed if you stacked all of India’s Dolo tablets during Covid.

Health Matters: The Burj Khalifa would be dwarfed if you stacked all of India’s Dolo tablets during Covid.

Did you use Dolo 650 while you were sick with Covid-19 illness?

That has been accomplished by you and me, as well as many others.

Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in 2020, according to available data, India has sold more than 350 million tablets of the anti-fever medication.

Due to the increase in demand for this oval-shaped white pill caused by fever, which is one of the most common symptoms of Covid-19, sales of this white pill have more than doubled in the last two years, despite the fact that paracetamol tablets are the most commonly used medicines for colds and fever.

If we were to stack all 350 million tablets vertically, they would be almost 6,000 times as tall as Mount Everest, the world’s highest mountain, or approximately 63,000 times as tall as the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, according to some estimates.

Yes, it is correct. Since its introduction in 2010, the paracetamol tablet Dolo (1.5 cm in length) has outsold the traditional Crocin tablet by a wide margin.

Consider the following: According to data from the research firm IQVIA, India sold around 7.5 crore strips of Dolo pills before the outbreak of Covid-19 in April of this year.

Each strip contains 15 tablets, therefore the total annual sales of the medicine have increased to 9.4 crore strips, which is the equivalent of 141 crore tablets. By November 2021, it had increased to 14.5 crore strips, which was twice the amount sold in 2019. It had also increased to 217 crore pills.

In addition, it should be highlighted that the first wave of Covid-19 arrived in India around September 2020, while the second wave, which was the most lethal, came in India in May 2021, resulting in the majority of deaths. In total, more than 3.5 crore instances have been reported in India. As a result, Dolo pills were sold over 350 million units during both pandemic years.

Dolo is now the second most popular anti-fever and analgesic pill in India, with a projected sales of Rs 307 crore in 2021, trailing only GSK’s Calpol, which has a projected turnover of Rs 310 crore in the same year. Crocin is the sixth-largest company in the category, with sales in the double digits of Rs 23.6 crore.

Sales of all brands in the paracetamol category totaled approximately Rs 530 crore in the fiscal year 2019 that did not include the Covid holiday. Sales in this category have increased by 70% since 2010, and by 2021, they would have reached Rs 924 crore.

People are not only purchasing Dolo, but they are also searching for it on the internet.

Since the breakout of Covid-19 in January 2020, the phrase ‘Dolo 650’ has been the most searched for on Google, with over 2 lakh searches, followed by ‘Calpol 650,’ which has been sought for approximately 40,000 times. During the second wave, the search volume for the keyword reached its maximum.

Dolo’s Debut and Claim to Notoriety

Since the 1960s, paracetamol, a generic salt, has been available on the market as a common painkiller for the treatment of aches and the reduction of high temperatures. It is a product of the pharmaceutical industry.

All of these names are trademarks of pharmaceutical companies that offer the same salt, paracetamol, under their brand names that are protected by trademark law. Crocin, Dolo, and Calpol are all trademarks of pharmaceutical companies that sell paracetamol under their trademarked brand names, which are protected by intellectual property rights.

Because of the memes that have flooded social media platforms claiming that every Indian is currently popping Dolo, I was eager to discover more about the reasons behind Dolo’s widespread appeal. Fever, muscle aches and pains, Covid 19, headaches, and toothaches are all said to be treated by Dolo as a one-stop solution for everything. These are hilarious memes to share with others.

After speaking with a seasoned industry veteran, I discovered that Dolo’s renown is not new. As a matter of fact, Dolo 650 was named the best-managed brand of the year in 2010, and it has since gone on to be named India’s most admired brand, among several other distinctions,” said a seasoned lobbyist for pharmaceutical corporations in India. He also added that “Dolo 650 has gone on to become India’s most admired brand.”

According to Dr. SP Kalantri, Professor of Medicine at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Mumbai, the cause for Dolo’s renown can be traced to several variables, among which is good luck. During our conversation, he indicated that this “workhorse painkiller” did little more than bring relief to people who are suffering from acute torment.

The general public and physicians were both intrigued by what it was that attracted their curiosity. I had enquired. This could be due to pure coincidence, fortuitous coincidence, sophisticated marketing, social media, or a perceived need of the population during Covid times. We will never know which of the assumptions is responsible for the surprising spike in popularity of the book. All paracetamols are the same in that they aim to reduce pain and bring down fever, as instructed by the physician.”

What Is It That Makes Dolo So Popular?

The first reason that doctors, brand gurus, and business veterans all agree on is that the brand name is simple and to the point. It’s less complicated than other products, such as Pyrigesic, Pacimol, Fepanil, and Paracip, which are more complicated.

Another factor is the company’s introduction into the 650 milligrams (MG) category, which is perceived to be more successful in treating fever caused by unknown illnesses than the previous category.

Since its inception in 1973, Bangalore-based Micro Laboratories, which manufactures the Dolo brand, has recognized an opportunity and relaunched the product, emphasizing that it included 650 mg of paracetamol, compared to the other brands’ 500 mg.

The medication became known under the brand name “Dolo-650.”

Several industry insiders and brand specialists informed me that the corporation capitalized on clinical information demonstrating that 650 mg provided superior pain relief to 500 mg.

Under the Micro Knowledge Academy, according to Vivek Hattangadi, a pharma brand specialist, Micro Labs also began a series of Continuing Medical Education (CME) programs for clinicians on the topic of ‘Pyrexia of unknown origin’.

According to his mentor professor, Chitta Mitra, who is widely recognized as the founder of pharmaceutical brand management, “even though the medical term for fever is pyrexia, prescription data analysis revealed that doctors preferred to use the term ‘FUO’ or ‘Fever of Unknown Origin.'”

In his opinion, MicroLabs’ marketing strategy, which included the use of the term ‘FUO’ in their brand promotion, was essential in increasing prescriptions.

“Fever has become associated with the brand, for reasons that are still unclear to this day. Any fever will result in a prescription for Dolo-650 being written by the doctor.”

Hattangadi’s analogy turned out to be right.

The CEO Magazine interviewed Dilip Surana, managing director of Micro Labs, who admitted that the company had discovered a “space” between normal fever and high fever in an interview with the publication.

“Numerous cases have been reported in which a fever with an unknown origin is diagnosed in association with a high temperature. We began pushing Dolo-650 to doctors from that point on. Doctors were fully aware of the idea of high fever, which resulted in a significant increase in the number of Dolo-650 prescriptions “In one of the few interviews that were released in January 2021, he was cited as saying.

Surana further stated that the batch size of Dolo manufacture has been expanded by a factor of 25 in recent years.

Crocin Expands Dolo’s Market by a Significant Margin

The Crocin brand, according to Hattangadi, was the first to be introduced into the paracetamol sector.

Crocin was created by the late GM Masurkar, who served as the head of the sales and promotion team for medicine manufacturer Crookes Interfran, which later changed its name to Duphar Interfran and then to Solvay.

In the late 1990s, the business sold its successful analgesic brand Crocin to Smithkline Beecham Pharmaceuticals, which was eventually amalgamated with Glaxo Wellcome – now known as GSK – to form SmithKline Beecham Pharmaceuticals (GlaxoSmithKline).

“Despite the fact that Glaxo previously carried Calpol, it was a weak brand as compared to Crocin. While Crocin was converted to an over-the-counter brand and Calpol remained a prescription medication, “Hattangadi shared his thoughts.

Crocin’s reputation is a result of this shift.

The following is what a general physician with four decades of experience told me over the phone during a candid talk about Dolo: “When a drug gets over-the-counter, doctors are less likely to prescribe it.”

The term “over-the-counter” refers to the fact that you do not need to see a doctor or obtain a prescription in order to purchase the medication. “Crocin di hai. Yeh toh main khud hi le leta, fees waste ho gayi. This is how the psychology of a patient operates. As a result, doctors began to refrain from administering Crocin “he explained.

The reputation of a certain brand develops stronger in the eyes of the patient and his or her family members whenever a doctor prescribes a particular brand. Beginning with the next purchase, they continue to purchase the same item.

By the way, if viewing too many memes on Dolo is giving you a headache, you already know what to do to relieve the discomfort.

edited and proofread by nikita