While the major Indian multinational pharma companies are looking forward to set up their facilities abroad, at least half a dozen global pharma majors are seriously looking at India to set up their manufacturing facilities.

According to the information available with Pharmabiz, these companies include global players like the US based Apotex Corporation and the Belgium-based Solvay Pharmaceuticals. Both the companies have almost finalized their plans for India, and the units are likely to come up in Maharashtra.

Further, PLIVA, the largest pharmaceutical company in Central and Eastern Europe, is seriously looking at India to invest in R&D and clinical research areas. PLIVA in the recent past had expanded considerably by acquisitions of many pharmaceuticals and R&D companies in the Czech Republic, France, Germany, United Kingdom and USA. However, the source declined to divulge more details and hints on the other three majors with Indian interest.

According to Dr B Suresh, president of the Pharmacy Council of India (PCI), who was in US recently for a few months and interacted extensively with the US pharmaceutical industry top guns, most of the companies are seriously looking at India as a major investment destination in the post 2004 scenario.

The overseas majors, who were in the past afraid of losing their drug technologies and processes to the reverse engineering skills of the Indians, now feel it is safe to set up their units in India, thanks to the patent protection safeguards in the emerging world order. Another major factor that contributes to the 'Go India' wave is the presence of numerous influential Indian professionals in key R&D and management departments of most of these leading companies.

The majors assess that their expenses could be substantially reduced by setting up units in countries like India as the availability of cheaper skilled professionals and other paraphernalia reigns in India. Further, they feel their logistic expenses for transporting medicines to the vast Asian and African continents could be reduced considerably, in comparison to the transportation process from the manufacturing hubs in US or Europe.

It may be noted Pharmabiz had recently reported many US companies were seriously planning to relocate 30 per cent of their CRO operations to India in near future. The paper also reported that the US-based major Kendle International Inc. will start its India operations soon and it has identified a location in Gurgaon to set up its India office and has started recruiting personnel for operations.