FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE OF INDIAN PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY BEFORE OUTBREAK OF COVID 19: AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS

Pharmaceutical industry is playing a vital role in development of the economy and social wellbeing of any country. With a huge population Indian economy depends on pharmaceutical industry heavily especially during the period of COVID 19. Some of Indian pharmaceutical companies have been able to adapt themselves to the new situation while the others are suffering. So, it is high time to measure the financial performance of the industry. Over this background, present study seeks to make a comparison, particularly in respect of performance of different financial aspects, between multinational and domestic companies in the Indian pharmaceutical industry during fifteen-year period from 2004-05 to 2018-19. The time-frame of the study is just before the world-wide outbreak of COVID 19. This is because, the study tries to know how well-off the industry was in the aspect of financial performance before outbreak of COVID 19. This will help us to know the financial background in terms of strengths and weaknesses of the industry to cope up with the adverse situation of COVID 19. The sample size of the study consists of twenty pharmaceutical companies by taking ten companies from each of the multinational and domestic sectors. The issue has been tackled using appropriate statistical measures.