The tax holiday regions of North India comprising Baddi in Himachal , Uttaranchal and Jammu & Kashmir apart from Sikkim in the North East will now get a boost from the government's newly announced tax exemption on expansions , relocation and change of ownership. In addition, the increasing number of pharma institutions and colleges are further buoying the pharma industry of north India, thus bridging the gap being left in the countries like EU and US, where graduates are fast shedding science and opting for lucrative careers in business. This allows North India to retain its status as a pharma research and manufacturing hotspot, says Peeyush Jain, Deputy Managing Director, Venus Remedies Ltd in an email interview with Nandita Vijay. Excerpts:
Can you please brief us on the activities of North India pharma industry?
North India is humming as a powerhouse of pharma research & development facilitated by the initiatives of over 800 medical and pharma companies like Cipla, Venus Remedies, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Jubilant Organosys, Surya Pharma Nectar Lifesciences, Panacea Biotec, Ind-Swift, Fresenius Kabi Oncology (formerly known as Dabur Pharma) and so on.
Additionally, Himachal Pradesh (Baddi) being the excise free zone since 2002 offers a conducive environment to the pharma players to flourish. Besides this, the contract manufacturer initiatives in the northern pharma industry is also on the rise with increasing number of US companies opting for outsourcing R&D and manufacturing to reduce operating expenses.
The special scheme of the Government has helped the home-grown entrepreneurs to grow and reap the benefits of the patent expirations. Due to the larger patent expiries in countries like the US and EU, pharma giants have started outsourcing contract research and manufacturing to cater to the rising demands for generic drugs over off-patent products. These factors are spurring the activities of North Indian pharma industry.
Which are the promising areas for growth?
There are a number of drugs which are going to expire in 2014, thus giving a wide space for generics or new drugs for substitution. It is a great opportunity for companies who have come up with new drugs to replace the old ones.
Besides this, the health care penetration is still low in India, thus offering immense growth opportunities for drug firms and health care institutions to gain ground and make profits.
What is the likely future of pharma industry in the north?
Indian pharmaceutical industry ranks third by drug volume accounting for 10 per cent of the global share and 14th by value of about US$24.8 billion which is three per cent of the global sales. The sector's growth is catalyzed primarily by exports, expanding 18.7 per cent CAGR to US$9 billion in 2009-10. Domestic consumption grew 13.5 per cent CAGR to US$13.8 billion during the period.
These figures reflect the bright future of Indian pharma industry. North India being an excise free zone and home for giant pharma manufacturers , is throbbing as a pharma hub. Additionally, the increasing number of pharma courses, colleges and institutions are further buoying the pharma industry of north India, thus bridging the gap being left in the countries like EU and US, where graduates are opting out of science to take up lucrative careers in business.
What kind of government support has come into these regions?
The announcement for tax and central excise concessions by the Union government to attract investment for special category states have played a vital role in developing the northern pharma industry. Today, Baddi is an excise free zone and home to many pharma and other manufacturing plants.
The Government of India has taken several policy initiatives and has given tax breaks such as weighted tax reduction at 200 per cent for the research and development expenditure, contract manufacturing and so on to boost the pharma business in the north.
Moreover, the infrastructure development in this region like roads, power supply, telecom and so on are also encouraging pharma operations.
What more would you like the government to do?
The northern pharma industry is doing quite well in the light of the incentives provided by the Government. To take this growth further, the Government should extend the excise free regime, which is going to end this March. Also, better infrastructure like an international airport in the northern region particularly in Punjab or Chandigarh will further help in aiding the logistic operations of the industry.
What are the initiatives by Venus Remedies to enhance presence in the north?
Venus is a research and development driven pharma manufacturing company, working in the fields of Oncology, Anti-infective and Neurology. We have already made in-roads into Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) that we plan to encash in the near future.
We are one of the very few R&D-led companies in the world working on AMR. We could foresee the potential of antibiotics fading 10 years back and it is the result of our focused approach that today we have some of the Super Bug tackling solutions under patent protection. We would like to tap the huge untapped antimicrobial resistance (AMR) segment, which is a bugbear to the globe itself.
Additionally, we have successfully completed Phase I & Phase II clinical trials for VRP1620, a cancer detection molecule. We have also tied up with IMTECH, a renowned Research Centre of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Development of Microbiology Panjab University to jointly develop a diagnostic kit for typhoid. The kit is expected to reduce disease detection time from 48 hours to few minutes. We are planning to launch these two kits in the market early next year.
Thus, we aim to enhance our presence in high-growth, high-value therapeutic segments with our novel formulations across the nation. We are working towards fulfilling this vision with the help of our field force of around 700 skilled marketing professionals,2000 stockists,40,000 chemists and 20,000 specialty doctors.
What kind of investments have gone into the region?
We firmly believe that investments boost R&D capabilities. In the fiscal year 2010-11, the company invested 15.6 per cent of the total sales turnover to ensure updated and fully equipped modern infrastructure to meet the needs of manufacturing facilities. We are investing part of our total sales turnover on R&D and manufacturing facilities on annual basis to keep up with the latest technologies and techniques.
Our research unit, Venus Medicine Research Centre aims at developing and formulating new and medically required fixed-dose combinations, novel drug delivery systems, including target - based delivery of drugs especially for tumours and nano-technology-based innovation. Our mission is to create intellectual property wealth of US1$ billion.
What are the R&D activities on antimicrobial carried out at your Baddi facility?
Bacterial resistance to antibacterials is increasing, and as a result previous products in use have become ineffective. Although this results in fewer antibacterial prescriptions (a market restraint) , it also causes the prescription of more expensive antibacterials (a market driver).
Venus Remedies is one of the few R&D-led pharmaceutical companies in the world which is working on antimicrobial resistance. We could foresee the potential of antibiotics fading 10 years back and it is through our focused approach that we could make significant breakthroughs in combating the menace of antibiotic resistance.
There is a huge untapped antimicrobial resistance (AMR) segment, which is troubling the world today. The most common and deadly AMR has been reported for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (exceptionally critical to infection treatment and control in the health care settings and has a global market size of $ 900 million), VRSA (Vancomycin Resistance Staphylococcus aureus), E.coli, K.pneumoniae, multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB), and so on. We at our research centre are working on these anti-infective bacteria to come up with revolutionary products. We have already succeeded to a great extent with our novel research products such as Vancoplus, Sulbactomax and so on which have worked tremendously against the AMR and are under patent protection.
What are the future plans of Venus in the northern region?
We are planning to launch two kits in the market in early next year. One of the two kits is VRP1620, a cancer detection molecule for which we have successfully completed Phase I & Phase II clinical trials. Other is a diagnostic kit for typhoid. We have tied up with IMTECH, a renowned research centre of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) and Development of Microbiology Panjab University to jointly develop this diagnostic kit for typhoid. The kit is expected to reduce disease detection time from 48 hours to a few minutes. We are planning to launch these two kits in the market early next year.
We are also coming up with a global business centre named 'Venusian Chamber' in Dappar (Punjab), a dedicated unit for our marketing professional across the nation.