India pharma industry to hit over $38b by 2022

The government is urged to create a research ecosystem that will support the sector's growth.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry is expected to grow from $31b in 2018 to more than $38b by 2022, although the government is urged to create a research ecosystem that will support the transition to a market specialising in innovative drugs from one specialising in small molecule generics, reports data and analytics firm Global Data.

“Looking at the current scenario within the Indian pharma industry, an increase of funding alone cannot be considered enough to create innovation,” Dr. Peter Shapiro, Senior Director of Drugs and Business Fundamentals at GlobalData, said in a report.

According to the report, majority of the top 20 generic companies by revenue are headquartered in India. This includes Lipaglyn, the first innovative drug launched by Indian company, Zydus Cadila in 2014.

However, some novel Indian-manufactured drugs fail to be approved abroad. 

“Indian companies’ lower spend on research and development (R&D) have prevented them from making an impact in the innovative drug market,” added Shapiro.

“It is good to have non-dilutive funding to bridge the gap in the drug discovery process. However, innovation growth will also depend on various factors such as industry-academic collaborations, availability of highly skilled talent, innovative science, and additional incentives provided by the government through policy reform,” he adds.