PharmEasy Health Report 2025: How India Cared for Its Health

Mumbai, Dec 23: PharmEasy, one of India’s leading healthcare platforms, today released the PharmEasy Health Report 2025, an annual, data-led snapshot of how India managed its health over the past year. Based on insights drawn from over medicine, diagnostic, and wellness orders, the report captures how health behaviours of their customers across the country are shifting from acute care to preventive care, from metro-driven demand to rapid adoption in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities.

At a national level, one trend stood out clearly in 2025: India increasingly prioritised preventive wellness over episodic care. Vitamins, supplements, diagnostics, and chronic-care management emerged as consistent, year-round habits rather than seasonal or crisis-driven purchases.

A Year Defined by Preventive Health

For the first time, vitamins and supplements became PharmEasy’s most ordered category of the year, recording the highest order volumes across the platform. Multivitamins consistently top the monthly chart, reflecting sustained focus on addressing nutritional gaps. At the product level, Vitamin B supplements emerged as the most-purchased health product in 2025 and grew 33% across cities and age groups as compared to last year. Calcium supplements followed closely, with Vitamin D ranking among the top purchases nationwide, highlighting a growing awareness around nutritional deficiencies, bone, and joint health. 

Diagnostics Data Confirms Shift Toward Routine Health Monitoring:

• Vitamin D tests were the most booked health tests, reflecting widespread awareness of its deficiency.
• Thyroid panels and HbA1c tests saw rising adoption, especially in Tier-2 cities.
• CBC and lipid profiles increasingly became part of regular health tracking rather than illness-led testing.

How Cities Bought Their Health Essentials 

The report reveals that while health priorities were broadly consistent nationwide, cities displayed distinct purchasing personalities:

• Mumbai led in multivitamins, supplements, and preventive care, and showed strong demand for calcium, protein powders, fitness supplements and stress-related wellness products.
• Delhi balanced wellness with indulgence, recording strong demand for gut care and sexual wellness products, alongside pronounced seasonal swings in cough, cold, and allergy medications. 
• Bengaluru remained function-focused, with high adoption of gut health, skin health, diagnostics, and general supplements.
• Hyderabad emerged as a gut-health hub, with antacids, and probiotics topping purchase charts.
• Kolkata showed unusually strong traction for digestive enzymes and electrolytes, while also quietly becoming a growing fitness and protein-consumption market.
• Chennai stood out for its progressive purchasing patterns, particularly in contraceptives and reproductive health products.

The Rise of OTC Wellness and Home Monitoring

Over-the-counter wellness categories saw sustained growth through the year. Homeopathy emerged as one of the fastest-growing categories, while thermometers, glucometers, oximeters, and other home-monitoring devices recorded consistent demand, especially during seasonal transitions.

The demand for protein powders and fitness supplements also surged, with Gurgaon and Mumbai leading whey protein consumption, and Tier-2 cities showing rapid catch-up in fitness-related purchases.

Gut Health, Acidity, and Everyday Comfort

Antacids and gut-care products featured in carts across regions, with data showing that every second household purchased a digestive product at least once during the year. Interestingly, antacid orders spiked during weekends, pointing to changing food habits and indulgent eating patterns. 

India’s Health Clock

When people buy, it is sometimes more revealing than what they buy. The timing of orders reveals our daily routines and our weekend indulgences.

• Time-of-day data showed two distinct ordering behaviours:

Morning Rituals: Morning hours (6 am-9 am) were dominated by routine restocking – vitamins, calcium, and other chronic or daily-use medicines.

Midnight Care: Late nights (10pm-4am) reflected chronic-care needs rather than emergencies. Blood-thinner medicines topped late-night purchases, followed by Vitamin C and calcium supplements, indicating that even off-hours shopping was driven by long-term health management.

• Weekdays, Weekends and the ‘Guilty Order’ Effect

Weekdays accounted for 71% of total orders, reinforcing that healthcare remains part of India’s regular routine. Weekends, however, showed a different pattern of spikes in antacids, skincare, sun care, energy drinks, and exploratory OTC categories.

Sundays, in particular, saw 14 – 18% higher demand for antacids, a trend the report refers to as the “guilty weekend order”, likely linked to indulgent eating habits. 

Managing Long-Term Chronic Conditions

Chronic conditions continued to dominate medicine demand. Blood pressure and diabetes-related medications accounted for 93% of chronic orders, underscoring the scale of long-term disease management in the country. Medicines for Thyroid disorders, while smaller in volume, remained stable and consistent in proportion, particularly among urban women, highlighting adherence. Data from diagnostic orders revealed that women accounted for nearly 60% of thyroid testing, with Delhi NCR and Bengaluru leading volumes.

Seasons Still Decide the Medicine Cabinet

India’s health needs continued to move with the calendar:

• Monsoon: Fever panels, electrolytes, antifungal creams, mosquito repellents
• Winter: Cold & cough medicines, Vitamin C, moisturisers
• Summer: Sunscreens and electrolyte supplements
• Pollution peaks: Masks, nebulizers, inhalers, and oximeters driven largely by Delhi and Mumbai

Tier-2 and Tier-3 Cities Took Centre Stage

One of the most significant shifts in 2025 was the acceleration of health adoption beyond metros. Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities recorded faster growth across vitamins, sexual wellness, diagnostics, and fitness categories.

Notably, Tier-2 cities placed 22% more SOS-style orders, reflecting higher episodic consumption alongside rising preventive adoption.

First-time buyers entered the ecosystem primarily through multivitamins, speciality supplements, glucometer strips, sunscreens, and moisturisers, signalling expanding health awareness among new users.

Newly Emerging Category: GLP-1 Usage Trends

• GLP-1 medicines recorded a consistent average month-on-month growth of ~12%.
• City-level trends show varied month-on-month growth, highlighting how uptake differs across urban markets.
• Nearly half of GLP-1 users are in the 25–45 age group, with a notable share in the 25–35 age group, suggesting early engagement among young adults managing metabolic health.

What This All Means

Commenting on the findings, Gaurav Verma, Chief Business Officer, PharmEasy (API Holdings), said, “The PharmEasy Health Report is more than a set of numbers. It reflects a fundamental shift in how India approaches healthcare. Our 2025 data shows people becoming more proactive, testing earlier, making informed supplement choices, and managing chronic conditions with greater intent. As our reach continues to expand far beyond metro cities, these insights offer a clear and timely view of what truly matters to Indians in their healthcare journeys.”

The Big Takeaway

The PharmEasy Health Report is an annual report that captures long-term shifts in health behaviour across regions, age groups, seasons, and lifestyles, giving a clearer, broader view of how India’s healthcare needs and ordering habits are evolving. The key takeaway isn’t what people bought when they fell sick, but how much they bought to stay healthy. The data shows a country moving from reactive panic to proactive wellness investments.