India pharmaceutical industry

Warren Kaplan argues that we should expect hybrid structures to appear in the pharmaceutical industries of the important middle-income producers of generic medicines (e.g., India). Notwithstanding the possible effect of these structures on pharmaceutical innovation in middle-income countries, this restructuring is likely to have important consequences for access to affordable medicines. The effect of these hybrid structures on real pharmaceutical innovation in the established pharmaceutical industry and in the newer public-private initiatives is still unclear. 

Chaudhuri, S. 2005. The WTO and India s Pharmaceuticals Industry Patent Protection, TRIPS and Developing Countries. New Delhi Oxford University Press. 

Grace, C. 2004. The Effect of Changing Intellectual Property on Pharmaceutical Industry Prospects in India and China Considerations for Access to Medicines. Issues Paper Access to Medicines. London DFID Health Systems Resource Centre. Available at http //www.dfid.gov.uk/pubs/ files/indiachinadomproduce.pdf [Accessed May 10, 2005]... 

The growth of the pharmaceutical industry in India, shown in Tables XIV and XV, has been much more rapid than elsewhere around the world... 

To help control the price of drugs, the government of India instituted the Drug (price control) Order of 1970. The Bureau of Industrial Cost and Prices is continuing its work on the matter and has submitted further recommendations to the government. The position of the pharmaceutical industry is difficult, since it has to consider both fixed prices and growing costs. This will require strict control on spending and also steps to see that productivity increases. 

Rl. Report of the Committee on Drugs and Pharmaceutical Industry. Ministry of Petroleum and Chemical, Gov. of India, April, 1975. 

Being major source of xanthotoxin, it has constant demand in pharmaceutical industries and amongst the medicinal plants exported from India (BCIL, 1996). The commercial demand of its raw materials is solely met through indiscriminate harvesting of natural populations. Kaul (1989) estimated that during 1980-85, about 150 tonnes of fresh roots of the plant had been harvested every year from the wild sources in Kashmir Himalaya. 

Globalization in the modem era has led to worldwide outsourcing. Two chapters were dedicated to the changes in the pharmaceutical industry in terms of outsourcing. In Chapter 28, Lu and Shinkai (Beta Chem, Japan), formerly from Merck, discuss the trends. Robins and Hannon (Davos), in Chapter 29, outline the importance of sourcing pharmaceutical products to China and India. 

Along with India, China has been a favorable emerging country for the pharmaceutical industry since its access into the World Trade Organization in 2001. The clear message for the pharmaceutical industry is that companies need to have a strategy that incorporates China as both a market and a supply source. As an emerging market, China offers the following. 

The production of pharmaceuticals can be measured best in terms of retail pharmaceutical sales rather than actual amounts of the drugs, since in some cases the measure is not a matter of weight but of units of production. The domestic sale of drugs in 1948 was 12,000,000, in 1976 it was 771,000,000. This represents an increase of 540% in a little less than 30 years. The potential for increase in the pharmaceutical industry is great when the per capita consumption of drugs is considered to be in the order of 1.00 (based on retail sales in India) as compared with almost 40.00 in the United States. The planning for the next plan period, the 6th, calls for an increase of 750,000,000 at current prices, which is nearly double (18, 20). 

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