时间：2022-08-13 07:21:31
President Barack Obama’s recent trip to India was his longest to any foreign country since the beginning of his term — and why not? The “New India” is a riveting and inspiring story, with the pharmaceutical industry providing a story within a story. Pharma is one sector that not only withstood the recent recession, but also clocked handsome growth and expanded abroad as the world steered itself out of the crisis. In the last five years, India’s pharma industry has emerged as one of the world’s best manufacturers of generic formulations.
Various industry reports rank India’s pharmaceutical market as the tenth-largest by value. What is more pertinent and often goes unnoticed is that the Indian pharma industry has emerged as the thirdlargest manufacturer by volume. The industry is expected to grow at close to 16 per cent on an average, up to 2015.
Indian drug companies are exploring newer markets, and consolidating themselves in the advanced ones such as the United States and Japan. They are also becoming hotbeds of drug research and drug delivery systems. Lupin has emerged as the fifthlargest generic player in the US and is among the top 10 generic players in Japan — the only Asian generic player to achieve those credentials.
Lupin was founded in 1968, born from one man’s vision and foresight. The healthcare system was in its infancy and quality was rare to find. Appalling standards of sanitation and pandemic malnutrition set the stage for a high mortality rate, especially among women and children. Diseases and epidemics were rampant.
Indian pharmaceutical companies started by focusing on these epidemics and also on anti-infectives. Over the next two decades, Lupin emerged as one of the world’s largest suppliers of anti-tuberculosis and antiinfective drugs, and a leader in APIs or active pharmaceutical ingredients.
On the policy front also, things were radically different. Pricing of drugs was largely state-controlled. With no meaningful budget allocations for health care, the sector had no incentive to grow.
By the 1990s, India had 70,000 pharmaceutical firms, mostly small and regional ones. In this fragmented market, the organised sector had just about 300 companies, including multinationals. Lupin made its presence felt even during these tough times by participating in the priority programmes of the government such as tuberculosis eradication, and the mother and child health-care programmes.
Then came the liberalisation of 1991. People had more disposable incomes and an improved standard of living. Rising affluence and urbanisation triggered an increase in the incidence of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. Indian players were quick to capture this trend, and the sales of anti-infectives paled in comparison to the revenues earned from cardiovascular illnesses and diabetes. The global competition called for smart strategy, and specialisation and differentiation at every level.
The mid-1990s also saw the first wave of expansion in advanced markets such as the US along with emerging markets in Africa and South East Asia, as the opportunity was too good to miss. Acquisitions abroad helped us evolve into global generic powerhouses. Unlike its Indian peers, Lupin was a late entrant in the US. We wanted to be sure that we had the right products and right segments, at the right time.
Today, Lupin is the fastestgrowing generic player in the US. About 70 per cent of Lupin’s revenues come from abroad, with the US fetching close to 35 per cent of its overall formulations sales.
If the past is prescriptive of the future, then the years ahead look even more promising. Research will be the single-most important driver of growth. India has emerged as one of the leading platforms for research — clinical trials, generics and process research, or drug delivery platforms, novel drug development and discovery, or biotechnology.
Big Pharma’s products pipeline is almost dry and a large number of innovator drugs are slated to go off patent. So multinationals want to participate in the emerging markets. The lines dividing the two have blurred and the empires of the future might well rise from our own backyard.
The greater emphasis on specialisation will also trigger a restructuring of the industry. I feel tomorrow’s pharmaceuticals market will have just three types of companies: the research-driven ones, those who focus on the marketing of conventional drugs, wellness and over-the-counter products, and those with a service-led business model.
The first set, the “researchers”, will face high risks and high returns. Drug discovery, new biological entities and drugs delivery systems will form their heart. Over the last five years, Lupin has increased its expenditure on research and development to close to 7.5 per cent of its consolidated global revenues. The productdriven companies have a marginal portion of their efforts devoted to research. The service providers will specialise in contract research and manufacturing. Lupin is at the“tipping point” between its heritage and destiny. We have earned our rights of passage into the international arena and our determination and commitment to continue to outperform have never been stronger.
Indian pharma has indeed entered a new league, but it must continue to outperform the G-7 nations and the emerging economies.