With lower costs for clinical trails in India, coupled with application of innovative technology Indian pharmaceutical companies are ready to compete with their global counterparts  The dream of Indian pharmaceutical companies of establishing global footprints and competing with its counterparts from the developed countries such as Europe, Japan, and the US is now coming true. With the new patent regime, global pharma players are attracted towards India for conducting R%D activities, clinical trials generic drug research and conducting several other activities related to drug manufacturing. Foreign pharma companies are also being attracted in the country because of low manufacturing costs of drugs and availability of cheap labour in the country.With the revenue earned from generic drug sales, Indian pharmaceutical companies are undertaking projects to invent new drugs. With its R&D policies, the government is trying to boost R&D in domestic pharma industry. For all drugs and materials imported for clinical trials, the government provides tax exemption for a period of 10 years. Drugs for such trails are also relieved of customs and excise duties.
Bright prospects
The future of Indian pharmaceutical sector looks very bright because of the following factors:
• Clinical trails that cost around US$300-350 million in the US costs only US$25 million in India
• Indian companies offer discounts hovering between 30-50% on custom synthesis services as compared to global counterparts.
It is anticipated that in the long run, the pharmaceutical market in India will maintain a healthy growth rate of 12-13%. It is expected to cross the US$10-billion mark by 2010 and would touch US$13-15 billion approximately by 2012. Increasing usage of generic medication is one of the major reasons as to why Indian pharma companies have laid higher importance on this segment over the past few years. This is clear from the Drug Master File (DMF) and Abbreviated New Drug Application (ANDA) filings made by Indian pharma players. Globally, healthcare authorities too are laying greater emphasis on promoting the use of generics to reduce public healthcare expenditure.
New technologies in Indian market
Usage of new manufacturing technologies by Indian drug companies has attracted global attention. One such technology is the usage of ‘nano’ or bullet technology. The technology deals with size reduction of drugs. One of the major advantages of nanotechnology is that because of its extremely minute size, the nano particles can easily enter into tissues via fine capillaries, which allows to them to easily absorbed by the cells. The technology also facilitates easily solublisation of insoluble drugs and using a cather, nano particles can be reached to distant target sites..
There are four different types of nano technology available, namely:
· Polymersomes :- eg dendrimers
· Hydro gel matrices :- eg micelles, dendrimers- micelle combination
· Bio-degradable nano particles :- eg red blood cells, gelatin
· Nano vesicles/ nano fiber mats : eg buckey balls, nano mats
India is rapidly emerging as one of the most attractive outsourcing destination for not only generic drugs but also high-end drugs, which are difficult to manufacture elsewhere. Indian firms have been the pioneer in influencing the increased outsourcing demand for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), the reflection of which can be seen in the aggressive DMF filings made by Indian pharma companies.
Bafna Mahaveer Chand, CMD of Bafna Pharmaceuticals Ltd, a small-sized manufacturer of pharma products in Chennai |
