Research and Markets: Indian Pharmaceutical Industry Likely to Change Significantly in the Near Future.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

DUBLIN, Ireland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 22, 2004

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com) has announced the addition of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry to their offering.

The environment under which Indian pharmaceutical industry is operating is changing slowly at present and likely to change significantly in future. The Indian pharmaceutical industry grew at a very slow pace from 1947 to 1970 due to the lack of incentives and the failure of the government to set-up a concrete regulatory framework. The industry is characterized by numerous governmental regulations and policy changes, stifling price controls and rigorous controls on formulations and an absence of international patent protection. During 1970, the Indian Patents Act (IPA) and the Drug Price Control Order (DPCO) were passed. Although, the DPCO acted as a buffer against pharmaceutical companies by making free pricing illegal, it fulfilled the goal of providing quality drugs to the public at reasonable rates. The introduction of the IPA which did not recognize product patent but only process patent provided a major thrust to the Indian Pharmaceuticals industry and the Indian companies, who through the process of reverse-engineering, began to produce bulk drugs and formulations at lower costs. This led to high fragmentation in the Indian pharmaceutical industry due to the emergence of a number of small Indian firms.

Thus, there are about 24,000 companies big, medium and small fighting for a more than $ US 5 Billion market. The Indian pharmaceutical market is ranked about 12th worldwide. About 300 firms in this industry are in the organized sector, around 15,000 being in the small scale sector and the remaining being very small without any economies of scale. India manufactures over 400 bulk drugs and around 60,000 formulations being distributed by 5,00,000 chemists all over the country. The Pharmaceutical Industry is passing through a wave of consolidation in India. The objective is to strengthen their brand equity and distribution reaching the Indian market, which is essentially a branded-generics market.

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c1407