Sixty billion dollars worth of expiring drug patents will make a good meal for the Indian pharma industry as reported this morning in the India Times. The Indian manufacturers are working to gobble up as much of that potential as possible - and will be meeting together (Indian Pharmaceutical Association) over this weekend to discuss plans on how to do just that.
Already, India is the No. 1 exporter of generic drugs in the world with exports totalling more than $8 billion in 2008-09. The industry is expected to reach $30 B by 2020.
"The Indian pharma industry is the third largest in the world with strength in the value chain and constitutes 40% of the world's exports of bulk drugs," said S V Veerramani, vice-president, Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association.
Indian companies are concentrating on manufacturing generic drugs. The US, Europe and Japan continue to be lucrative markets as they are the largest spenders in healthcare.
Hooking up with MNC's can be another way for India manufacturers to position for growth, as Pfizer, GSK, Daiichi Sankyo, and AstraZeneca have already forged such partnerships to exploit this opportunity.
"Companies like Pfizer, AstraZeneca have set up operations in India as the cost is low. New drug development is also happening along with a growing focus on R&D," Jayaseelan said.
The competitive lines are being drawn. Look for India to continue to be a strong competitor in this area given high levels of science/facilities and lower costs structures (for the time being anyway).
Posted by Bruce Lehr March 12th 2010
Dishman reported today (April 13th) that it was seeking $10 M incremental in its CRAM business from Japan in 2010-2011, http://finenewsletter.blogspot.com/2010/04/dishman-cfo-vvs-murthy-says-company-is.html
Posted by: Bruce Lehr | 04/13/2010 at 06:07 PM