PHARMA LITERATI

Indian drug manufacturers are to a large extent dependent on China for sourcing their drug ingredients or the active pharmaceutical ingredients, as the industry words it. This is largely for drugs like antibiotics - crucial among them being penicillin G (and other products based on it such as amoxicillin and ampicillin), tetracycline - and for vitamins such as vitamin C and D. All of these are based on drug ingredients made using the fermentation-based process, an area where China has achieved global dominance. Now, the coronavirus scare has added a new dimension with an air of uncertainty around how the supply situation from China will unfold. Currently, the Chinese government has extended the New Year holidays. They were to be from January 25th till February 3rd but will now be till around mid-February. However, if these get further extended then, Indian drug manufacturers, mostly formulation plants, which use the drug ingredients and make the tablets and capsules that we consume...

Dilip Shanghvi, MD of India's most valuable drug firm Sun PharmaceuticalNSE 0.85 % Industries and one of the richest first-generation billionaires in the country with a net worth of $7.8 billion, is now looking at new markets to fire the company's growth engine. The Gujarati businessman started his entrepreneurial journey from Kolkata with about Rs 10,000 nearly four decades ago. Today, he runs the world's fourth-largest specialty generics maker, generating revenues of over Rs 30,000 crore.  Shanghai now plans to steer the company into the specialty business (novel, innovative drugs), and towards expanding markets like China and Japan for growth, both through acquisitions and partnerships. Excerpts from an exclusive interview: How is the economic slowdown affecting the sector in general, and Sun Pharma in particular? The Indian pharma industry has registered good growth in the first half of the year, and Sun Pharma has also performed well. We have taken multiple ...

In a move that will significantly help Indian pharmaceutical companies expand their presence in the Chinese market, Beijing has removed import duties on as many as 28 medicines, including all cancer drugs. The new regulations came into force on May 1.  " China has exempted import tariffs for 28 drugs, including all cancer drugs, from May 1st. Good news for India's pharmaceutical industry and medicine export to China. I believe this will help reduce trade imbalance between China and India in the future ," Chinese Ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui said on his official Twitter handle on May 3.  “ China will further improve business environment by halving time required to open a business, State Council decided at an executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on May 2nd. China’s door to the outside world will open wider. Indian businesses are welcome ,” Zhaohui tweeted.  The development comes just days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded his two-day Chi...

India may have emerged as a key supplier of generic and affordable medicine for the world market, but it has an “overwhelming dependence” on China for the raw material required to produce these drugs, industry association Assocham said. Indian companies depend on China to supply them with the main raw material in drug making — known as Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API). The dependence is to the extent of over 65 per cent, an ASSOCHAM-RNCOS joint paper said. Though the government has taken steps like withdrawal of exemption in customs duties, imports worth Rs 13,853 crore in 2015-16 or 65.29 per cent of the total imports of Rs 21,216 crore are not sustainable, the association said. “ This is all the more disconcerting in the face of louder narrative against reducing trade gap with China which is well over USD 51 billion ,” it said. The API is the organ by which active pharmaceutical ingredients are manufactured from raw materials through both chemical and physic...