India stands third in the global pharmaceutical market by volume and thirteenth by value. Being a nation that is amongst the top manufacturers of generics, having strong local players in the industry and the competitive intensity & results that the country shows makes the pharma industry of India significant globally. The nation registered a growth of 9% in May 2020 y-o-y, observing a rapid increase in the pharma exports. As the country largely supplies cost-effective generics & other medicines globally with low-cost production, many countries have been investing in India.
· Generics Industry
Amongst, the pharmaceutical products in India, generics hold a higher value in the global market. The generic industry of India is growing stronger each year, flourishing the country’s economy consistently. India is the largest supplier of generics to the world and fulfils close to 40% of the US generics’ demands, this is why in 2017, the nationwide received 304 Abbreviated New Drug Application approvals from FDA (The United States Food & Drug Administration). Besides, the country exports pharma drugs, medicines, biosimilars, herbal products, etc. to almost all the nations worldwide, holding a momentous position in all of the highly regulated developed markets.
· Indian Pharma Industry: Overview
The pharmaceutical sector of India among the most fragmented ones, encompassing over 10,000 companies. This is a testimonial to the growing size of the market, the country and the collaborated pharma ecosystem in the course of time.
“It is a matter of pride that many of the SMEs of yester years have become large-scale national companies now,”
– Daara B. Patel, Secretary-General, Indian Drug Manufacturing Association (IDMA).
In the Global Business Report, Feb 2020, Mr Daara B. Patel, Secretary General, IDMA shared how constant initiatives are taken to coordinate with the government to pillar the SMEs (Small and Medium Scale Enterprises) sector, due to which today there are around 2000 WHO-Approved GMP plants. With such developments within the sector and the support from the government, it is estimated in the near 3-4 years, another 1000 SMEs will be eligible to achieve WHO-GMP compliance. This will definitely empower the increasing strength of the Indian Pharma Industry.
· Low-Cost Production, High Investments
Equipped with immense manpower, higher employment needs and well-experienced experts many foreign countries are willing to invest in India. The pharma products manufacturers in India are known to manufacture bulk pharmaceuticals & drugs in high concentration and low cost. This has led many foreign-based medicine & drugs companies to invest in the Indian pharmaceutical manufacturing, which may be low-cost but gains a higher profit to the country’s economy. With more and more production plants set up across various parts of the nation, it encourages employment and offers a wide scope in improving the nation’s GDP.
· Scope of Increasing Demands
Becoming a global competitor in the global market and partnering with top companies across the world, India is also planning to enter the R&D sector along with platforming clinical trials. On the other hand, with the new vision of digital healthcare access and expansion of the pharmaceutical base in several new medicines & drug manufacturing, the country is expected to meet the highest volume of the world’s pharma requirement by 2050. Also, Mumbai being the economical capital of India, the pharmaceuticals manufacturers in Mumbai along with other key parts of the nation, in coordination with the best experts are working towards producing vaccines; especially participating in the COVID-19 vaccine production to fulfill the global requirement.
References:
https://www.ibef.org/industry/indian-pharmaceuticals-industry-analysis-presentation#:~:text=India’s%20domestic%20pharmaceutical%20market%20turnover,(US%24%201.47%20billion).
https://www.gbreports.com/article/the-worlds-pharmacy-indias-generic-drug-industry
https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/pharma-life-sciences/pdf/global-pharma-looks-to-india-final.pdf