PHARMACEUTIAL INDUSTRY IN INDIA

The Indian pharmaceutical industry, now a $17 billion(over Rs 68,000 crore) Industry, has shown tremendous progress in terms of infrastructure development, technology base creation and a wide range of products. It has established its presence and determination to flourish in the changing environment. The industry now produces bulk drugs belonging to all major therapeutic groups requiring complicated manufacturing technologies. Formulations in various dosage forms are being produced in GMP compliant facilities. Strong scientific and technical manpower and pioneering work done in process development have made these possible. The country now ranks 4th worldwide accounting for 8% of world's production by volume and 1.5% by value. It ranks 17th in terms of export value of bulk actives and dosage forms. Indian exports are destined to more than 200 countries around the globe including highly regulated markets of US, Europe , Japan and Australia .

There are 20,000 laboratories in India 's pharmaceutical industry and the scale of the pharmaceutical market amounts to Euro 5.3 billion. The leading 250 pharmaceutical companies control 70% of the market with market leader holding nearly 7% of the market share

The following attributes constitute the basis of the technological strengths of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry: --

•  Self-reliance displayed by the production of 70% of bulk drugs and almost the entire requirement of formulations within the country
•  Low cost of production
•  Low R&D costs
•  Innovative Scientific manpower
•  Excellent and world-class national laboratories specialising in process development and development of cost effective technologies.
•  Increasing balance of trade in Pharma sector
•  An efficient and cost effective source for procuring generic drugs especially the drugs going off patent in the next few years.
• An excellent centre for clinical trials in view of the diversity in population