Cardiac and diabetic products are chronic-therapy products: patients usually take them every day for long periods, so a doctor who starts writing a product tends to keep writing it. For a PCD partner, that means repeat orders and a steady monthly base, which is why many partners add this range once their first ranges are established.
This guide looks at the range from the trade side: who prescribes it, what partners usually stock, why it behaves differently from acute ranges, and how to choose a starting set.
Where the demand comes from
- Diabetologists and endocrinologists prescribe the widest part of the diabetic range.
- Cardiologists prescribe the cardiac products.
- General physicians write a large share of both, especially in smaller towns.
- Hospitals and nursing homes use some injectable products, such as anticoagulant injections.
Because chronic patients refill prescriptions regularly, chemists near clinics with many such patients become steady buyers.
In many towns, a few busy physicians see a large share of the chronic patients. Identifying those doctors, and the chemists their patients use, is often the fastest way to build this range.
The molecule families partners stock
In Ancare’s cardiac and diabetic range, for example, the products include:
- Metformin combinations, with glimepiride or gliclazide, and with gliptins such as teneligliptin, vildagliptin or sitagliptin;
- combinations with dapagliflozin, including a three-molecule combination;
- cardiac products such as metoprolol, telmisartan, rosuvastatin, and clopidogrel with aspirin;
- anticoagulant injections such as enoxaparin.
Metformin appears in 15 of Ancare’s 28 products in this range, which reflects how the diabetic market is built around metformin-based combinations in several strengths.
Dosage forms
Of the 28 products in Ancare’s cardiac and diabetic range at the time of writing, 24 are tablets, 2 capsules and 2 injections. A tablet-heavy range is easy to store and transport, and sells mainly through chemists.
The challenge is strengths, not forms: the same combination may be prescribed in several strengths (for example different metformin and glimepiride levels), and you need the ones your prescribers write.
Planning a starting set
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Do you visit diabetologists, cardiologists or general physicians? | Specialists use a wider range and more strengths |
| Which combinations and strengths are written in your area? | Stock what is prescribed; avoid strengths nobody writes |
| How many chronic patients do your chemists serve? | Shows how quickly repeat orders can build |
| Can you keep every strength in stock? | Chronic patients cannot wait; a missing strength loses the prescription |
A common approach is a small core of metformin combinations in the most-written strengths, one or two cardiac products, and adding strengths as prescriptions grow.
Building the range over the first year
Months 1–3: the most-written combinations. Start with the metformin and glimepiride combinations in the two or three strengths your prescribers write most, plus one gliptin combination. Chronic prescriptions build slowly at first, so keep quantities modest.
Months 4–6: add strengths and cardiac products. As repeat orders appear, add the strengths you were asked for, and one or two cardiac products, such as a statin or an antiplatelet combination, if your prescribers write them.
Months 7–12: newer combinations and hospital products. Add newer combinations, such as those with dapagliflozin, once doctors in your area are writing them, and anticoagulant injections only if you supply hospitals that use them.
By the end of the first year, a cardiac and diabetic range usually provides the most predictable part of a partner’s monthly orders.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Too many strengths too soon. Every strength you stock ties up money. Add strengths as prescriptions call for them.
- Missing the strength a patient is on. A chronic patient who cannot get their strength will switch brands, and may not switch back.
- Treating it like an acute range. Orders build over months, not weeks. Judge the range on repeat orders, not the first month’s sales.
- Ignoring chemists near large clinics. Chemists serving many chronic patients are your steadiest buyers; keep them stocked.
How to tell whether the range is working
Chronic-therapy ranges reward patience, and the signs that matter are repeat orders:
- monthly reorders from the same chemists, which means patients are refilling;
- new strengths requested as doctors adjust prescriptions;
- orders that hold up in quiet months, unlike acute ranges that rise and fall;
- a growing number of prescribers writing your core combinations.
If, after six months, a product has no repeat orders, look at whether the strength, the price or your visit frequency is the problem before adding more products.
Questions to ask the company about this range
- Which metformin combinations are in the range, and in exactly which strengths?
- Which cardiac products are included, and which are planned?
- How reliably are the core strengths kept in stock, month after month?
- What is the dispatch time to your area, so that you can plan reorders before stock runs low?
- What promotional material is available for diabetologists, cardiologists and physicians?
In a chronic-therapy range, consistent stock of a few products is worth more than occasional stock of many.
Working the range with your other ranges
Diabetologists and physicians who write cardiac and diabetic products also write neuropathy combinations and nutraceuticals such as vitamin B and vitamin D3 products. Carrying the neuro or nutraceutical range alongside lets you present more of what these doctors prescribe on every visit.
Promotion and supply
Doctors who start a chronic patient on a product expect it to stay available. Reliable supply matters more in this range than almost any other, so plan reorders before you run out. Present compositions and strengths accurately, leave clinical choices to the prescriber, and follow the Uniform Code for Pharmaceutical Marketing Practices.
Ancare’s cardiac and diabetic range
Ancare Life Sciences, Panchkula, markets 28 products in its cardiac and diabetic range, with full compositions, strengths and packs. Look up any salt in our products by composition index.
See how to start a PCD pharma franchise for choosing your first ranges, or contact us for the price list for your area.