The Indian pharmaceutical industry has been witnessing phenomenal growth in recent years, driven by rising consumption levels in the country and strong demand from export markets. Being one of the most progressive and advanced amongst all the developed and developing countries, today, India stands in the top five pharmaceutical emerging markets across the world. It has a great pool of pharmacists and scientists with good potential to steer the industry ahead to greater heights.
India has the source of around 60,000 generic brands and accounts for manufacturing more than 500 Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) which ranks India’s API industry as the third-largest in the world. The major supply includes Over-The-Counter (OTC) medicines that are employed to cure general and non-life-threatening conditions. The major pharmaceutical hubs include Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Visakhapatnam, and Ahmedabad. The foremost generic drug manufacturers of India such as Sun Pharma, Cipla, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Lupin, Aurobindo Pharma, etc. have a strong foothold in the global drug supply chain.
In comparison to the western market, India has a significant number of factors that have the potential to steer its pharmaceutical industry to a higher level. Huge labour force, innovative and scientific manpower, low Research and development costs, reasonable production, policy support, health insurance, up-scaled medical technology, and a large number of national laboratories gives India an upper hand in this sector.
Covid-19 has pushed up sales of medicines and resulted in exponential growth for the pharmaceutical sector in the country. According to total sales audit data from the world's largest pharmaceutical market research firm IMS Health, the Indian Pharma Market (IPM) grew 59 percent YoY in April 2021 vs 16 percent YoY in March 2021 due to the low base effect in April 2020 and sharp a surge in Covid-19-related sales.
The government has said India will produce a total of 1260 million vaccines between August-December. However, the current vaccine makers Serum Institute - the biggest in the world - and Bharat Biotech are working hard to meet the demand. India has so far given more than 100 million doses of two approved vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin. Russia's Sputnik V has been deemed to be safe and works in a way similar to the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab which is being made in India as Covishield. Sputnik V gives around 92% protection against Covid-19, late-stage trial results published in The Lancet revealed.
India has shipped 64 million doses of vaccines to 86 countries in Latin America, the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa. The recipient countries include UK, Canada, Brazil, and Mexico. Both Covishield and Covaxin have been exported - some in the form of "gifts", others in line with commercial agreements signed between the vaccine makers and the recipient nations, and the rest under the Covax scheme, which is led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and hopes to deliver more than two billion doses to people in 190 countries in less than a year.
Milan Patel, Chairman of Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association and Joint Managing Director – Troikaa Pharmaceuticals said, “Covid- 19 has shifted the perspective for many of the frontline warriors and I do believe that pharmacists have played an almost equal role to a front line corona warrior. Not only they have been providing services in the worst of the outbreaks and lockdowns, but they have also guided and counselled many patients to control health issues. With our health care system under tremendous stress during the outbreak, the role of pharmacists is invaluable.”
He further added, “India is the powerhouse of pharmacy as far as manufacturing capabilities and qualified manpower is concerned. So if the world wants to protect itself from corona and make it a healthy place again, the global companies have to leverage the advantage of India’s manufacturing capabilities. If the world-wide research and progress is not shared with India, it will be very difficult to defeat the virus and make the world a safe place.”
Although India has been widely known as the ‘Pharmacy of the World’, it has seldom been appreciated for its contribution. Historically, India has played a key role in making drugs affordable and accessible. Covid-19 has enabled the much due recognition for Indian pharma industry.
