| (L-R) Dr PV Appaji, Director General at Pharmexcil India and Bhavin Mehta, CoA Member Pharmexcil and Committee Chief of iPHEX |
The Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), has announced the launch of iPHEX 2013, India’s own pharmaceutical show under the support of Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Commerce, and Government of India. iPHEX 2013 shall be held in Mumbai from April 24-26, 2013 and over 400 leading Indian companies are expected to showcase the best of pharma products at the event.
The organisers claim that iPHEX 2013 will see the presence of 5,000 business visitors including overseas buyers and drug regulators. Huge business opportunities are expected to emerge during the event. Further, the presence of large number of drug regulators from overseas market is expected to help Pharmexcil and its members to promote the quality and affordability aspect as envisaged in ‘Brand India’ pharma campaign. The campaign has been initiated by Ministry of Commerce and executed by Pharmexcil in association with IBEF.
Elaborating on the strengths of the Indian pharma industry, Dr PV Appaji, Director General, Pharmexcil says, “India is the third largest player in the world with 500 different APIs and ranks fourth globally in terms of production volumes; and 13th globally in domestic consumption value. The country is the largest exporter globally of generic formulations in volume. It exports vaccines to 150 countries and produces 40-70 per cent of the WHO demand for DPT and BCG and 90 per cent of measles vaccines.” Besides domestic companies are accredited with 851 CEPs, 845 TGA and 513 manufacturing sites, registered with US FDA. They have been granted 90 per cent of APIs approvals for ARVs, anti-tubercular and anti-malarial. India also ranks highest with 35 per cent share in filings of DMF filed with US FDA and it sells 15 per cent of generics by volume in US.”
iPHEX 2013 aims to be a complete value chain show and Pharmexcil is creating a sustainable pharma industry platform with a special focus on exports market development. “The exports growth story is one to be proud of,” says Appaji. “Total exports during the last five years have grown by 16 per cent CAGR, growth during the last financial year, 2011-12 was 23.34 per cent in USD terms. North America continues to be our best destination with a CAGR of 25 per cent and 33 per cent growth during 2011-12. Exports to EU has grown exceptionally well during 2011-12 with 28 per cent considering the fact that a single digit CAGR was recorded during the last four years. Exports to Oceania have also grown well with a growth of 43 per cent but the overall turnover is small and considering the fact that Australia and New Zealand are not yet fully tapped, higher growth rates can be expected,” he mentioned.
With increasing R&D spends, Indian pharma sector has become a cost-effective centre for world class research as also for contract R&D. Indian companies in recent years have produced many cost-effective drugs that are affordable to the masses, said Ashutosh Gupta, Vice Chairman of Pharmaexcil. “We are making concerted efforts to promote India’s status as the manufacturing hub of the world,” added Gupta.
Pharmaexcil informs that India is a favoured pharma hub since it is technologically strong and totally self-reliant, has low costs of production, low R&D costs, innovative scientific manpower, strength of national laboratories and an increasing balance of trade. They also inform that Indian pharma industry today is ranked world class, in terms of technology, quality and range of medicines manufactured. From simple headache pills to sophisticated antibiotics and complex cardiac compounds, almost every type of medicine is now made indigenously. The industry today can boast of producing the entire range of pharma formulations, i.e., medicines ready for consumption by patients and about 350 bulk drugs, i.e., chemicals having therapeutic value and used for production of pharma formulations.
Pharmexcil also highlights that more and more Indian companies are investing in research and development (R&D). They are working overtime to improve the overall quality of their existing product and services lines. India has steadily emerged as a major global R&D hub despite starting late. The country with a spending of $30 billion globally ranks eighth. India has moved up in the pecking order which includes leading innovators like China, Japan, Germany and South Korea. The average R&D expenditure by Indian pharma companies is close to six per cent.
The Government has prepared a ‘Pharma Vision 2020’ document for making India one of the leading destinations for end-to-end drug discovery and innovation. Through this, the government provides support by way of world class infrastructure, internationally competitive scientific manpower for pharma R&D and venture fund for research in the public and private domain. The Government is also embarking on a major multi-billion dollar initiative with 50 per cent public funding through a public-private partnership (PPP) model to harness India’s innovation capability. The vision is to catapult India into one of the top five pharma innovation hubs by 2020, targeting to achieve a global niche with one out of every five to ten drugs discovered worldwide by 2020 originating from India.
“The Government has also been taking various policy initiatives for the pharma sector. These include tax-breaks to the pharma sector and weighted tax deduction at 150 per cent for the R&D expenditure incurred. Steps have also been taken to streamline procedures covering development of new drug molecules, clinical research etc. Indian Government has launched two schemes—New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative and the Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Research Programme—specially targeted at drugs and pharma research,” says Appaji.
“iPHEX 2013 will be the biggest industry exposition in India showcasing the diverse range of products and will include formulations, APIs, Ayush, nutraceuticals, health services, biotechnology and biotechnology products, R&D services etc,” informed Bhavin Mehta Committee Chief of iPHEX and CoA member, Pharmexcil.
In addition to a world class exhibition and meeting place for Indian companies and global buyers, Pharmexcil plans to organise several thematic seminars and conferences on the sidelines as well. “These shall include pharma sector investments, R&D and innovation, overseas market entry strategies etc,” mentioned Mehta. The Ministry of Commerce, has launched a series of initiatives to promote Brand India Pharma and iPHEX 2013 is expected to offer a perfect opportunity for international buyers and regulators to come to India and evaluate how well structured and regulated the Indian pharma industry is.
Visit www.pharmexcil.com for more details.
EP News Bureau – Mumbai