Re booting for 2013 …

Piramal Enterprises’ second buy in the pharmaceutical analytics sector, the UK-based Abacus International, is an indicator of the maturing appetite for growth of India’s big pharma firms. Piramal’s first move into analytics was the $635 million buy of US-based Decision Resources Group. This was followed by Abacus across the Atlantic. Piramal is using its war chest from the Abbott deal but why isn’t it buying up other pharma companies? Clearly, both DRG and Abacus have much more than products: the lure here is data. Between DRG and Abacus, Piramal now has access to insider data on the world’s leading life sciences companies, spanning pharma, diagnostics and medical equipment.

Strides’ deal with Eli Lilly for generic cancer medicines for emerging markets is another example of this pragmatic approach of playing to one’s strengths. While Strides sold off its generics business in Australia to Watson Pharma, it is notching up partnerships with the likes of Pfizer, GSK, Sandoz, Teva, Novartis and Aspen. Clearly, each global partner derives significant cost savings, attracting more partners.

Meanwhile, big pharma is re-shaping its presence in India as well. It is becoming a trend for some of the MNCs who have already had a long innings in India to close down older manufacturing facilities in India and outsource production to other smaller players with more up-to-date infrastructure. For instance, in August, GSK closed its five decade-old plant in Thane, Maharashtra. More recently, in end November, Sandoz, the generics arm of Novartis, closed down its drug development unit in Mumbai. This followed an earlier closure of its API development centre.

With governments all over the world pushing for more affordable medicines (Obamacare is probably the biggest such push), it is industry players who will have to adopt new business models. For instance, Abbott is already consolidating three business units, to tap operational synergies and cut costs as India’s new pricing norms will definitely squeeze profit margins. Look out for our first issue of the 2013 where we have pharma pundits predicting what will be the hot trends to look out for in the year ahead.

Viveka Roychowdhury
Editor

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