From the recent Indian Medicine BBS and CphI India sponsored by the Ministry of Chemical Industry of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), the Indian biological conference hosted by the Singapore Terrapinn and a series of pharmaceutical industry conferences and exhibitions, we find that the pharmaceutical industry is of great impact on the Indian growing economy. The rise of Indian pharmaceutical industry is the key driver of the global pharmaceutical industry. Meanwhile, we also can find a few characteristics of the development of the Indian pharmaceutical industry:
(1) Rapid Growth: in the above exhibitions, the representatives of the Indian government admitted that the pharmaceutical industry is one of India's economic growth areas. In 2008, under the condition of the global economic downturn, the Indian pharmaceutical industry growth rate reaches more than 14%, and at the same time, the export growth reaches 25%. The Indian pharmaceutical industry will increase more than $50 billion from the current $20 billion in the next five years.
India has obvious cost/quality advantages in the terminal to terminal development, compared with the United States, which potentially saves more than 50%, so more and more pharmaceutical companies in the world focus on captive offshoring, R&D cooperation and the fee of service and cooperation / joint venture for future growth in India. Contract manufacturing activities have been able to be achieved through the lower manufacturing costs, skilled workforce and strong technical capabilities.
(2) Research Cooperation: at these exhibitions, at the same time, the industrial transformation was produced - achievements on generic drugs are considered to reflect the process, which is exciting drug discovery or opportunity in the field of biotechnology. Even the Indian government is also actively promoting the concept of "Research as a Commercial Driving". Even so, for new commercialized drugs which are developed by Indian companies, there is still a long way to go. Experts say India is better than others at some aspects, such as developing a strategy for new drug discovery, and excavating natural products or using the existing favorable IT infrastructure. The developed countries and developing countries also are affected by the diseases due to lifestyle, and experts believe that India can play an important role in the development of drugs on diseases like diabetes, and especially in the cooperation with the global companies.
The chief decision-making officer of Merck & Co., Dr. Mervyn Turner said, in the face of drug channel contraction crisis in the global pharmaceuticals industry, India has a very good location. He said, “structure" transformation in the global pharmaceutical industry will lead to the change of the method to produce new drugs, because of the advantages on skills and markets, India can be a key leader. Multinationals, like Merck, are redrawing their growth strategy, and focusing more on emerging markets like India. If we hear some news about India Research Association and the companies being closely related in the following days, we don't have to be surprised, because these companies continue to consolidate in the global pharmaceutical industry, and also expect reasonable expenditures in new drug research and manufacturing.
(3) Biotechnology Boom: as India hopes to get the results in the field of new drug discovery, the biotech drugs which lose patents (these drugs are sometimes called biosimilars) are taken as the driver of the next larger revenue growth. The biological conference organized by Terrapinn attracted multiple spokesmen from India and abroad who seemed to agree that India has the ability to seize the opportunity of regional development.
In USD 750 billion global pharmaceutical market, biological generic drugs are estimated at $90 billion. The very successful products in biological field are increased year by year, and in 2006, the products with sales amount of more than USD 1 billion had reached more than 20. By 2012, in 20 leading drugs, there may be 9 biological agents. Many Indian spokesmen appreciate the role of Biotechnology Department in driving Indian biotech pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Dua admitted that "in India, the government is the key driver of biotechnology".