Poised to overtake Japan and become the world’s fourth-largest economy by 2025 according to the latest International Monetary Fund estimates and now registering heady year-on-year growth rates exceeding eight percent, India’s overall business outlook appears increasingly rosy with industry reaping the rewards from rising per capita GDP, enhanced purchasing power, and a surge in inward-bound FDI flows.
Even better may yet be in store for India’s life science sector, however. “Historically, India’s pharmaceutical market tends to outpace overall GDP, normally achieving growth rates about one and a half times higher, explains Anil Matai, director general of the Organization of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), “and with our country now consistently performing among the best of any large-scale economy, this looks like it might be a highly auspicious time for our members.”
“What the international investor community needs to understand is that the Indian pharmaceutical market is now firmly on a trajectory akin to China’s in the 2000s and 2010s,” insists Suresh Pattathil, general manager at Abbvie, and the current President of OPPI. “We are anticipating what is now a USD 65 billion pharma market to be worth as much as USD 130 billion by the end of this decade on the back of rising economic capabilities, favourable market conditions, and an ever-expanding patient base,” he confides. Perhaps the question therefore, is why – with such a robust local industry and well-established democratic institutions – it has taken India over two decades to get to where China was back then?
Open for Business
This growth momentum underpinned by strong fundamentals: from favourable demographics to the emergence of a thriving middle class. As many as one in three of India’s population can be considered middle class, with figures ranging from 432 million to 715 million individuals with the country’s middle class projected to almost double to 61 percent of the total population by 2047, up from 31 percent in 2020-21. What’s more, these fundamentals have been bolstered by concerted efforts on the part of the incumbent Modi administration to unshackle the life science industry and create the enabling conditions in which pharma and medtech entrepreneurialism can flourish. Plans are in place to make India self-sufficient in active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and key starting materials (KSMs) for the pharmaceutical sector, become a major exporter of these essential components within a decade, increase market value by 30 percent by 2025, and double it by 2030.
“Over the past few years, we have witnessed a frankly monumental effort underway to propel this nation on a pathway to economic prosperity and these initiatives have touched all facets of our business life: from the simplification of regulatory frameworks and refinement of the tax codes to the development of better transport infrastructure and the promotion of online transactions,” notes Pratima Reddy, general manager at Merck Healthcare.
Local captains of industry seem to be equally enthused. “Thankfully the prevailing period of political stability and business-friendly legislation in India has laid the foundations for successful operations and enabled companies like ours to avoid much of the effects of recent global economic downturn,” opines Mohal Sarabhai, managing director of historic and diversified local firm Ambalal Sarabhai Enterprises (ASE).
Girisan Kariangal, general manager at the Italian midcap drug developer, Menarini, very much concurs. “The ease of doing business has palpably improved through shrewd policy enactments and optimism right across the sector is now riding high” he says.
In many cases these improvements have entailed a rationalization and easing of the regulatory load. Kariangal, for example, draws attention to “the introduction of a streamlined Goods & Services Tax that has eliminated state-wide checkpoints, reduced delays and costs in product transportation, and removed barriers to distribution.”
“Previously, India’s regulatory framework was highly decentralized and fragmented, with each state possessing its own bespoke approval authorities, leading to variations in interpretations and standards and a myriad of unnecessary complexities for business owners. Happily, common sense has prevailed and there has lately been a significant shift towards centralization, uniformity, and optimization of process,” reflects Shailesh Siroya, managing director of Bal Pharma, an Indian API manufacturer.
Meanwhile, the recent establishment of digital platforms for drug approvals and registrations has been paving the way for easier, faster, more transparent dossier submission. “The cumbersome and bureaucratic approval processes that Indian once used to be infamous for and that hitherto acted as a significant deterrent to innovative drug developers is fast becoming a relic of the past,” says Sampada Gosavi, general manager of Japanese specialty pharma outfit, Astellas. “Close to 70 major innovator brands were introduced in India over the past decade indicating a definite upswing in international pharma’s willingness to launch originator products on the local marketplace,” she observes.
“We want to send a very clear message to the market – both domestic and international – that India is open for business and that this administration properly understands the needs of industry,” affirms Santosh Indraksha, deputy drugs controller at the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) within the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
He points to his Ministry’s eye-catching overhaul of India’s clinical trial regulations by way of illustration. “We have committed ourselves to very aggressive approval timelines. If an applicant does not receive a reply from us within 90 days, the clinical trial application is automatically considered as deemed approved. Moreover, this 90-day standard timeline is reduced to just 30 days in the case of applications coming from homegrown, domestic companies, with local medium and small size businesses from now on receiving a full 50 percent concession on any fees related to studies and new drugs approvals,” he proudly reveals.
Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) at the CDSCO is calling for “a shift in the mindset” within India to promote innovation, “since most of us are still thinking with respect to the generics model, because it has become so successful.”
He adds, “The problem lies in the fact that people in the pharma sector mostly wait for a reference, and then start working on something. There are very few people who take the initiative and start innovating on their own. So, just like how the development of generics has become a mass movement in India, we need to drive innovation and start a mass movement there as well.”
In other instances, relief has actually come more in the form of new regulations where previously there were none. “Over the past few years, we’ve observed a positive shift with a brand new, fit-for-purpose, dedicated regulatory framework coming into being for medical devices that recognizes the nuanced differences between devices and drugs which is something we’ve been pushing strongly for,” says Sanjay Bhutani, country manager at Bausch and Lomb.
“This 2023 National Medical Device Policy is a significant milestone because it removes medtech from under the umbrella of drug regulations, aligns with global norms, and will allow companies like ours to move forward in our business planning with increased clarity and predictability,” he elaborates.
Ayushman Bharat: Enhancing Universal Healthcare For All
Also central to the life sciences sector’s growth momentum has been a significant upswing in expenditure on public health in a country where access to quality care has all too often been restricted to the privileged few with the independent means to pay for it.
“Traditionally India has comprised a mainly out-of-pocket market where patients were required to pay for speciality products on their own, and public spending on health was under two percent of GDP,” says Sudheendra Kulkarni, managing director for India, South Asia and ASEAN at Ferring. “However, in recent years there has been an unprecedented push on the part of the state to extend healthcare coverage to the lower-income segment of the population and securing access to medicines for those at the bottom of the pyramid,” he continues.
“The post-COVID period created strong tailwinds for our industry with healthcare spending by the government designated a priority and a strong focus placed upon capability-building both as a health payor and care provider,” agrees Jayashri Kulkarni, country head at Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine for India and South Asia. “A combination of public social schemes and accelerated private insurance penetration suggests that by next year, more than 50 percent of the Indian population will for the first time have some form of health insurance,” he estimates.
At the heart of this drive to invest in healthcare has been a much-acclaimed state program called ‘Ayushman Bharat.’ “Prime Minister Modi envisioned a scheme where no one should face financial hardship anymore due to healthcare expenses. The idea was to provide cashless and free secondary and tertiary care to the poorest 40 percent of India’s population, attending to 500 million people via more than 25000 hospitals spread across 36 states and union territories while setting hospital rates, defining rules, and establishing the necessary implementation infrastructure,” recalls Indu Bhushan the first ever CEO of the program. “It operates on an entitlement basis rather than enrolment, meaning those present in the designated databases are automatically eligible for services, he adds.
“With a track record of providing 60 million treatments over the past five years, amounting to 70,000 crore rupees (around USD 8.4 billion) in expenditure, the initiative has notably achieved strategic purchasing of health services, resulting in a substantial saving of over 40,000 crore rupees (USD 4.8 billion),” elaborates Basant Garg, CEO of the National Health Authority (NHA) within the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
“The key point to keep in mind is that it is not just about increasing the expenditure but spending the envelope more efficiently to secure sustained public health outcomes. In other words, it is about deriving more value out of each penny spent,” he insists, signalling that ultimately the intention will be to extend beyond curative care and refocus towards encompassing preventive and primary healthcare.
This is music to the ears of the private sector. “We applaud the roll out of Ayushman Bharat which we think can be a real gamechanger for what has long been an underserved segment of the patient population and we can already see its tangible impact with some of the latest innovative and patented treatments being included on the eligible medicines list,” enthuses Ferring’s Sudheendra Kulkarni.
Nonetheless, there is also a healthy realism about the likely pace of change. “We do recognize that, given the sheer size of India’s population and enormity of the task ahead, the end goal of universal healthcare will require considerable time, patience and resolve,” concedes Kulkarni.
Imperfect Access, Lower Price tags
Indeed, from the perspective of drug developers, India can more accurately be described as a ‘false mega market’ given continued consumer inability to pay high prices and the inherent complexities of reaching many patient cohorts. “The pricing dynamics in India really set this market apart,” explains Sudarshan Jain, secretary general of the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA). “Medicinal products in India are priced at approximately one fifth of their global counterparts, so while the nominal domestic market might be valued at USD 25 billion, considering these lower prices, its effective value ranges between 60 to 70 billion.”
“With a full 67 percent of healthcare expenses being privately paid, cost sensitivity is a significant factor in the Indian market and balancing innovation and affordability becomes a critical consideration for companies’ business strategies,” agrees Bausch and Lomb’s Sanjay Bhutani. Then there is also the ethical dimension to factor in. “As a market leader, my company acknowledges its responsibility to cater to diverse consumer bases in this incredibly price-sensitive market.”
Pierre Perez, general manager at Servier echoes that sentiment. “The big challenge is to find a price point that the market can stomach while not compromising on quality and upholding standards. Most multinationals follow pricing based on purchasing power and adopt tiered-pricing models.”
Navigating the payer and reimbursement landscape in India also tends to be a significantly more complex task than in most Western markets, given the sheer number and diversity of schemes spanning central government, states, and various organisations. “Recognising the need to address gaps beyond normal pricing models, we find ourselves dealing directly with institutions such as the Employee State Insurance Corporation and the Indian Railways, among other key payers,” says Merck’s Pratima Reddy.
Meanwhile, the unique logistical and demographic challenges in India amplify the complexities around getting medicines to the people who most need them, particularly in rural areas where awareness and detection pose significant hurdles. “While the urban centres benefit from better healthcare infrastructure, the majority of the Indian population actual resides in rural areas which can lead to considerable gaps in access to treatment,” points out Vikrant Shrotiya, corporate vice president and managing director at Danish diabetes and obesity specialty outfit, Novo Nordisk.
India’s diabetes epidemic illustrates this well. “Because of these logistical challenges the unfortunate reality is only a fraction of the actual diabetic population in India is currently taking insulin,” bemoans Shrotiya. Indeed, India’s Diabetes & Obesity Centre estimates that approximately half of the individuals with diabetes remain undiagnosed. “Indians tend to develop diabetes a decade earlier than their Western counterparts, leading to a longer duration of living with the condition and increased risks of complications. Half of those who are diagnosed, do not receive treatment. For those receiving treatment, only half of them receive optimal treatment. Consequently, the proportion of well-controlled diabetes patients most likely stands at only around 13-15 percent of the diabetic population,” explains Dr Brij Mohan, the Centre’s President.
Nor is this unfortunate statistic an isolated example. A cursory glance at the medtech market reveals similar tendencies. “India, despite being the most populous country globally, currently only consumes about two percent of medical devices, despite comprising 15 percent of the world’s population. This suggest that there are currently significant levels of unmet need that we are presently proving unable to respond to effectively,” reflects Bhutani.
Yet the pickings are still bountiful for those companies with smart and well thought out go-to-market business models. “The wealth of untapped opportunities available means that expanding the market rather than attempting to capture market share is often the primary objective,” says Sandeep Verma, general manager at Bayer Consumer Healthcare. “The penetration of healthcare products in India is below ten percent, yet India ranks as one of the largest markets globally. Our goal is to increase the number of households using our products. From a starting point of approximately 35 million households, we’ve already increased this to around 50 million since 2021. The aim is to quadruple this number within the next four years to reach around 100 million households.”
Focused Portfolios
What, then, are the secrets to making a success of the Indian market? For a start, adaptation to the local circumstances can be converted into a major competitive advantage. “Their leaner, faster decision making often places midcaps ahead of the game when it comes to navigating the ins and outs of the Indian marketplace. Unlike larger multinational corporations, firms like us tend to possess the requisite agility and reaction speeds to adapt quickly to local nuances, which can be of significant advantage,” confides Menarini’s Girisan Kariangal.
“The ability to tailor strategies to suit the unique complexities of India, taking into account cultural, regulatory, and market intricacies, can vastly enhance your operational effectiveness and overall chances of success,” he affirms.
Also, most high performers in India have proved adept at slicing and dicing the marketplace and tailoring their portfolios to target specific niches and growth spots. “In spite of India’s vast population, we in Menarini have narrowed our focus to the middle-upper class customer segment, constituting approximately 300 million individuals, and elected to concentrate upon positioning ourselves as a leader in the dermatology space which is exhibiting strong demand momentum, as well as associated extensions such as aesthetics and scar management,” details Kariangal. “Doing so, still presents an opportunity for premium pricing strategies and can fully leverage our reputation as a high-quality European laboratory,” he reasons.
Indeed, Kariangal explicitly mentions “clarity in strategic choices’ as fundamental to his affiliate’s sustained high performance. “This clarity has not only defined what aspects to pursue but also which areas to intentionally disregard and avoid being distracted by,” he clarifies.
Bayer’s Sandeep Verma very much agrees on the primacy of strategy and the importance of identifying which customers to target. “It’s worth remembering that India’s market structure includes a substantial middle class which is larger than the total population of most of the European countries so this can certainly represent a highly lucrative segment for those able to properly tap into it,” he opines.
Local players have equally used portfolio focus to great effect. Piramal serves as an example of this. “We took the strategic decision to tailor our portfolio to professionals in medical care facilities and zone in upon complex, hard to produce hospital generics, divesting our branded generics to Abbott. This niche focus, especially in products like inhalation anaesthetics, intrathecal therapy, and injectable pain relief positions us uniquely with fewer competitors due to the higher level of difficulty and specific barriers to entry and has been instrumental in our ability to sustain our high performance,” says Peter DeYoung, CEO of global pharma at Piramal.
The same can be said for the medtech space. Bausch and Lomb initiated its operations in India primarily manufacturing contact lenses and lens kit solutions. “Over time our approach has evolved, moving beyond mass products to ever more strategic and niche offerings and nowadays we are finding that some of our real gains are being made in areas such as our surgical business in ophthalmology, focusing on cataract and refractive lenses,” admits Sanjay Bhutani.
That said, for many companies, the Indian market has also provided fertile territory for extending the lifecycle of their established products. “Managing an established portfolio in India, including areas like diabetes, cardiovascular and age-related conditions, is a dynamic process driven by the thoroughly unique healthcare landscape and prevalence of non-transmissible, lifestyle diseases associated with a fast-developing economy, socio-demographic factors, and epigenetics,” says Abbvie’s Suresh Pattathil.
“Despite being termed ‘established,’ these portfolios are essentially growth portfolios in this market due to the substantial patient population. For instance, with 100 million people in India suffering from diabetes, addressing conditions like diabetic macular oedema becomes big business,” he explains.
Merck’s calculation has been very similar. “Our Indian affiliate’s cardiometabolic franchise holds a substantial 40 percent share of our market presence, offering a range of products dedicated to cardiovascular health, diabetes treatments, and thyroid medications,” says Pratima Reddy. “India stands apart and offers an altogether different range of possibilities because, unlike for instance in many western markets, the lion’s share of the Indian market value is derived from branded generics with innovative portfolios representing a comparatively much smaller slice,” she adds.
Proactive Market Shaping
“The key to dealing with a still significant untapped market also lies placing investments that extend beyond mere coverage and actively contribute to shaping the market,” explains Pattathil. For Abbvie, this has meant investing significantly in raising awareness and educating the practitioner community. “For our glaucoma treatments, we are heavily supporting medical education and disease awareness that emphasizes the importance of regular check-ups to prevent blindness, especially in high-risk groups, such as patients suffering from diabetes and hypertension. Similarly, in diabetic macular oedema, we are concentrating on educating the scientific community about treatment choices,” he says.
Johnson and Johnson has, for its part, been proactively co-opting diagnosticians to the achieve much the same effect. “We recognized the importance of partnering commercially with diagnostic firms and centres of excellence nationwide to streamline the diagnosis process and reduce patients’ time from initial contact with a medical professional to receiving the correct diagnosis and subsequent treatment decisions. The goal has been to expedite the patient’s journey and minimize the potential for misdiagnoses which should, in turn, substantially grow the market we can reach,” reasons Jayashri Kulkarni.
Sometimes it even means spending time and effort engaging with the end users themselves in an effort to positively change patient behaviour. For example, Bayer has been working hard to drive self-care habits amongst Indians. “Despite the country having one of the highest headache incidences globally, fewer than five percent of Indians opt for headache medication. This tendency arises from the Indian psyche where enduring pain is seen as a display of resilience and heroism. Our focus has been to change this perspective. We advocate that true heroism doesn’t come from tolerating pain but from winning over it,” recounts Verma.
The way Bayer is going about this is primarily by enlisting the direct support of physicians. “Doctor recommendations in India hold substantial weight, making them influential in guiding consumers’ choices. For many personal care products, film or sports celebrities can have a very significant impact. However, for healthcare products, doctors’ recommendations are the key influencers. Besides doctors, pharmacists or chemists in smaller towns, where access to doctors might be limited, also can influence consumer choices significantly,” he explains.
Novo Nordisk’s Vikrant Shrotiya mirrors this sentiment. “Despite national guidelines, treatment decisions often rest with individual doctors, influencing the trajectory of patient care. Navigating a non-reimbursement market in India, where a significant majority pays out of pocket for medications, demands a strategic approach. focuses on pre-launch engagement, emphasizing scientific communication, innovation, and the value of control. By involving healthcare professionals in discussions about the science behind the product, its innovative aspects, and the clinical benefits, a company can establish a strong foundation for adoption of their medicines,” he says.
Many companies have also been resorting to fit-for-purpose digital solutions to educate and elicit better treatment adherence. On the consumer-facing side, Bausch and Lomb are using social media as a primary platform to engage with users. “A key plank in our company’s in-country strategy revolves around expanding the market for vision correction products and through smart use of social media we can communicate our product’s benefits, provide usage and offer free trials upon user requests,” explains Sanjay Bhutani.
Bayer, meanwhile, has targeted 400 million non-smartphone users, who lack access to quality healthcare by leveraging voice-based AI technology to transform their regular non-smart phones into health management tools. “For instance, in pain management, users can call a specific number, engage in voice-based communication, and receive relief instructions, entertainment, and stress management strategies tailored to their needs… The pilot project in certain regions showed promising outcomes, demonstrating the potential to expand this approach to other underserved areas without smartphone accessibility,” details Verma.
Then there is the outstanding example of Johnson & Johnson’s digital campaign that revolutionized tuberculosis awareness across the country. “Our initiative sparked a movement for change in a country where millions suffer due to a lack of knowledge and stigma. Collaborating with youth influencers Vaani Kapoor, a well-known Bollywood celebrity, and Kaam Bhari, a young rap artist, the campaign reached 55 million young Indians using the universal language of music to shatter barriers and normalized conversations about TB. The end outcome has been a resounding 15 percent surge in TB awareness, translating, to date, into around 105,000 critical health-seeking actions,” proudly relates Kulkarni.
Beyond the Commercial: from Manufacturing to Global Capabilities
Many multinationals have additionally recognized India’s vast strategic potential beyond commercial activities in areas such as manufacturing. “For us India stands as a strategic cornerstone, boasting a substantial workforce exceeding 4,000 employees. In the global landscape, it claims the prestigious position of the third or fourth largest affiliate within our organisation. This influence transcends conventional commercial operations, extending its reach to encompass pivotal manufacturing sites and other functions,” says Merck’s Pratima Reddy.
“The cost efficiency that India brings to the table adds additional leverage for the country to offer advantages for global corporations,” notes Ferring’s Kulkarni. “We already have a manufacturing plant for APIs and are committed to building a new formulation plant and expanding our existing R&D setup to strengthen our presence and capitalise on the growth opportunities that India offers.”
Servier too, has decided to capitalize upon the same opportunities. “Our affiliate’s big milestone achievement was establishing India as a potential new hub for developing, manufacturing and exporting products to the rest of the Servier Group across the world. Our successful engagement with CMOs, stringent quality standards, and commitment to ensuring our products meet the same quality benchmarks as those manufactured in France have been key elements in successfully bringing this off,” recounts the company’s general manger, Pierre Perez. “One standout opportunity lies in India’s unique capability to develop single-pill combinations. This is a significant advantage and has allowed us to significantly enrich our product portfolio, especially in cardiology and diabetes,” he elaborates.
Others see India more as an appropriate host for global service functions. We were actually one of the pioneers amongst the multinationals to establish a global shared services center in India, but many companies have now followed suit,” says Novo Nordisk’s Vikrant Shrotiya “Nearly eight percent of our global workforce, totalling around 3,500 people, now operates from India. This initiative, initiated 15 years ago, includes functions like medical writing, regulatory, finance, business accounting, business analytics, and clinical trials, all centred in Bangalore and leverages the country’s high education levels, low labour costs and English language capabilities.
Following in Novo Nordisk’s footsteps, other companies like Terumo are increasingly doing the same. “Our decisions reflected a dual objective – to harness the commercial potential inherent in the Indian market and to explore how India could contribute more comprehensively to Terumo as a global corporation. We are thus forging ahead in developing robust Shared Services operations to leverage the talent capabilities available in India, which will uniquely position us in our organization in a global context,” says Shishir Agarwal.
Sustaining the World’s Pharmacy
Historically India has been awarded the epithet ‘pharmacy of the world’ thanks to its capacity to produce and export vast volumes of affordable, increasingly compliant medicines. “Our country’s traditional strength mainly lies in supplying essential chemicals to manufacture APIs, bulk drugs, intermediates, and excipients, as well as in formulation development making us a significant node in global pharma supply chains,” says Raghuveer Kini, director general of the Chemical Export Promotion council (Chemexil).
Indeed, the Indian Drug Manufacturers’ Association (IDMA) currently counts 3500 registered manufacturers and approximately 10,500 manufacturing units that collectively produce over 60,000 different pharmaceutical formulations. Every third tablet consumed in the world is made here, while every third child vaccinated worldwide is from a vaccine made in India,” notes the IDMA’s secretary general, Daara Patel.
Retaining this role in the face of competition from other low labour cost regions, however, requires continual effort to differentiate the country’s offering. “We recently introduced new quality standards, known as ‘Schedule M,’ which strives to place our country’s facilities on a par with WHO Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) standards and bring them almost to the level of US and EU standards,” recounts Arunish Chawla, secretary of the Department of Pharmaceuticals within the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
“This shift indicates a commitment to raising manufacturing standards to global benchmarks and norms and acknowledges that upgrading regulatory standards is essential for India to able to scale the value to the next level,” says Viranchi Shah, managing director of Saga Lifescience and incumbent president of the IDMA.
The National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), meanwhile, has been trying to promote greater nationwide uptake of continuous flow chemistry as opposed to traditional batch processing. “Competitors like China are already ahead in implementing this change to continuous flow chemistry which by running reactions in a continuous loop achieves cost efficiencies, as well as a superior safety and environmental profile,” argues Dr Ashish Lele, the NCL’s Director.
It is in the API segment of manufacturing, however, that India has most been losing ground. Although India remains the third largest market for APIs globally, the Covid-19 pandemic brought to light India’s own growing dependence on imports from China of key Starting Materials and drug intermediates. “Over the last few decades, China strategically and aggressively developed its API industry, enjoying substantial government support and subsidies as well as economies of scale. This allowed them to offer prices below the cost of production, leading to a situation where India, along with other countries, became dependent on Chinese supplies for a range of pharmaceutical ingredients, including antibiotics and vitamins,” explains Shailesh Siroya, managing director at Bal Pharma.
Recognizing the urgency to incentivize domestic manufacturing of these critical components, New Delhi has rolled out an economic package for ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat,’ or self-reliant India including the introduction of the Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme designed to reverse the trend.
“In the early phase PLI concentrated on identifying 53 key strategic materials, that are 100 percent imported from China, urging companies to manufacture them domestically. Within this, 26 molecules were allocated to be manufactured through conventional organic chemistry production. The remaining 27 molecules ventured into the realm of bio-based production. This shift brought forward the realization that India further lacked essential competencies in large-scale fermentation, a critical aspect of bio-based manufacturing,” recalls Ashish Lele.
Some local entities such as Ambalal Sarabhai Enterprises (ASE) have consequently headed the call. “We went ahead and established a new API plant at our subsidiary company Asence Pharma, playing a crucial role in addressing the evolving dynamics of the pharmaceutical supply chain,” says ASE’s Mohal Sarabhai. “Our plant in Gujarat not only caters to raw materials for API but strategically aligns with the emerging “China plus one” strategy, which is crucial for not only India but global supply chains as well. The plant, designed for oncology and synthetic chemistry API production, positions us to offer alternatives, meeting the growing demand for diversified supply chains,” he adds.
Inherently Investable
The overall picture is therefore of a contemporary Indian life science market that retains its heft, plays to its own set of rules, and bestows manifold opportunities for those who understand how to seize them.
“The key lies in blending a mix of local and global leadership,” thinks Abbvie’s Suresh Pattathil. “Currently, many global pharmaceutical companies in India are led by Indian expats who deliver a deep understanding of the local intricacies while simultaneously possessing a global perspective so can master the unique dynamics of the situation,” he reflects.
“India, to me, has always been an intriguing puzzle, and if you can decipher it, it becomes a goldmine of opportunities. The satisfaction lies positively impacting countless lives. Despite the challenges, the evolving nature of India makes it an immensely satisfying and rewarding environment to be operating in,” concludes Novo Nordisk’s Vikrant Shrotiya.
