No Easy Cure

Indian pharma companies are facing strong headwinds, but they are also exploring every new opportunity to ensure a quick recovery.

- E. Kumar Sharma

The pharmaceutical industry in India is in serious need of a strategy rethink. Constant policy interventions for over a year and the growing uncertainties around those have sorely hit the sector, so much so that the key players are determined to get better of those deterrents and regain their growth momentum, especially in the domestic sector.

Going by sheer numbers – around ₹1,00,000 crore or $15 billion in domestic sales out of $32 billion total revenues earned in 2015/16 according to industry estimates – both local production and local markets play a key role in this sector. Some 500-odd firms account for the bulk of domestic sales, about 85 per cent, and the recent regulatory changes at home have hit this native pharma industry quite hard. As for the elites, 20 or so leading players (the likes of Sun Pharma, Dr. Reddy’s, Lupin, Zydus Cadila and Cipla) accounting for 75 per cent of the total pharma exports to the US, the going has been tough there as well, but more on that later.KEY ISSUES

The Four Deterrents at Home

For most Indian companies catering to the domestic market, growth has been sluggish over the past two years due to four major deterrents. To start with, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare banned 344 fixed-dose combinations in 2016 that affected 6,000 brands produced by 100-plus companies. The ban followed recommendations of an expert committee that they lacked therapeutic justification. The Supreme Court is now hearing the matter.