Healing Beyond Boundaries, Against All Odds

In Part Two of our Independence Day coverage, we identify trade and non-trade barriers faced by India Pharma Inc as it seeks to serve patients beyond boundaries by delivering cost-effective quality medicines.

- Viveka Roychowdhury

In the first part of our Independence Day special coverage, the August 115 issue examined how the three ‘Is’ - Indigenisation, Innovation and Information – can be leveraged to help India achieve true independence in the pharmaceutical sector. A large part of this independence comes from financial stability. Hence, exports have bulked up the balance sheets of most of India’s pharma companies, right from market leaders to SMEs. India has bagged 20 - 22 per cent share of global pharma export volume, is one of the lowest cost manufacturing destinations and is expected to rank among top three pharma markets in terms of incremental growth by 2020.

Take for example, the jugalbandi between India and China, which has been built over the past few decades on complementary strengths. While India focussed on becoming a global source of cost-effective quality formulations, China excelled in making low cost active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and key starting materials (KSMs). Companies on both sides expanded their geographic foot print across the world, thanks in part to this relationship.

But exports come with their own threats, with each country presenting a different challenge. Thus future growth in exports will not be a cakewalk. For instance, India’s equation with China has changed, due in part to geo-political circumstances. Many pharma companies in India, and other countries as well, found themselves overtly dependent on China for APIs. The first warning bell went off in 2008 before the Beijing Olympics. Faced with increasing pollution, not the least deteriorating air quality, China feared that its global image would suffer a huge dent when it hosted teams from across the world for the 2008 Olympics.