Dolo 650: Netizens start meme fest after a rise in COVID cases, call it 'new favourite snack'
Dolo 650 maker: We did not expect this kind of popularity
Dilip Surana, chairman and managing director at Micro Labs, on the reasons for the wild popularity of the tablet during the pandemic, the company’s plans for 2022 and ingredients to succeed in a business.
Omicron scare: There may be no need for COVID19 patients with 'mild' symptoms to rush to a hospital for bed. They should isolate themselves at home, and take necessary precautions. One should consult a doctor and buy their 'Dolo 650' from a chemist.
Dilip Surana, chairman and managing director at Micro Labs Limited, is—with due respect to Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Insitutute of India, and Bharat Biotech chairman Krishna Ella, the companies behind COVID-19 vaccines—the pharma businessman of the moment.
Micro Labs is the company that produces Dolo-650, a pill to manage fever that has triggered outrageous sales and a deluge of memes due to its wild popularity. Surana is a 30-year pharma veteran who joined the family business and took over operations in 1983.
Dolo 650 is a popular painkiller that can be found in almost every home and is used to treat aches, pains, and fevers.
How and when did you get the idea to make Dolo 650? What were the main challenges for manufacturing Dolo and how did you address them?
The Paracetamol 500 mg market was always crowded and we wanted to have a Paracetamol with a difference. After we studied the market and held discussions with doctors, we found there was a gap in managing fever. Relief from fever and pain provided by Paracetamol 500 mg was not adequate. Dolo-650 was the answer to fill the gap and this was how it was launched in 1993.
According to data, since the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020, India has sold more than 3.5 billion pills of the anti-fever drug. This was overcome by coming out with oval shaped tablets with the right excipients (substances formulated alongside the active ingredient of a medication) for the first time in India.
Fever, one of the most common symptoms of COVID-19, has pushed sales of this oval-shaped white pill to treble in the last two years, despite the fact that paracetamol pills are the most commonly used cold and fever treatments.
As India grapples with the third wave of Covid, Dolo 650, which has clocked sales of Rs 5.7 billion during the pandemic since March 2020 and topped the charts of paracetamol pill, has been dubbed a "favourite snack."
If all 3.5 billion tablets were stacked vertically, it would be nearly 6,000 times the height of Mount Everest, the world's highest mountain, or 63,000 times the height of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building.
If you believed the pandemic was finally over, you were mistaken.It has reared its ugly head by releasing Omicron, a new variant.
The medicine's annual sales increased to 94 million strips (each strip containing 15 tablets), or 1.4 billion tablets.
By November 2021, it had risen to 145 million strips (twice as much as in 2019) or 2.2 billion tablets.
It's worth noting that the first wave of COVID-19 entered India in September 2020, while the second wave, which caused the greatest deaths, arrived in May 2021.
In total, more than 35 million instances have been reported in India. As a result, during both pandemic years, more than 350 crore Dolo tablets were sold.
Dolo is currently the second most popular anti-fever and analgesic tablet in India, with a turnover of Rs 3.1 billion in 2021, only ahead of GSK's Calpol, which has a turnover of Rs 3.1 billion.
Crocin is the sixth-largest brand in the category, with sales of Rs 231 million in double digits.
On this occasion, Twitter users coined the hashtag # Dolo650, which is currently trending.
Memes about the Dolo 650 have sprung up on Twitter, bringing the usual dose of humour to the platform.
Take a look at some of the most popular memes on Twitter:
Since COVID-19 cases have been on the rise, demand for the drug Dolo 650 has been high.
Yes, it is correct. In the last two years, Dolo, a 1.5 cm-long paracetamol tablet, has sold far more than Crocin, the standard paracetamol tablet.
Before the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2019, India sold around 75 million strips of Dolo pills, according to statistics from the research firm IQVIA.
The medicine's annual sales increased to 94 million strips (each strip containing 15 tablets), or 1.4 billion tablets.
By November 2021, it had risen to 145 million strips (twice as much as in 2019) or 2.2 billion tablets.
It's worth noting that the first wave of COVID-19 entered India in September 2020, while the second wave, which caused the greatest deaths, arrived in May 2021.
In total, more than 35 million instances have been reported in India. As a result, during both pandemic years, more than 350 crore Dolo tablets were sold.
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