Pharmaceutical companies are scouting for fresh avenues in Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) going by the increased number of imports from the region in the areas of antibiotics, anti-ulcerants, analgesics, antipyretics anti hyper-tensives and NSAIDs.

An emerging trend in the region is the large number of marketing alliances inked for better reach in the far-flung parts of the region, which is largely viewed as a high-risk and high-return destination with intense competition from local manufacturers, inform sources in the Karnataka Pharma sector.

The encouraging business hubs in CIS are Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation and Ukraine.

Micro Labs is the only company in the State that has a significant presence in CIS through its four full-fledged sales offices in Russian Federation, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and the company entered these markets in late 90s. It has an established marketing base in CIS. The key growth areas are in antibiotics, gastroenterology, cardiology, anti-diabetics, central nervous system (CNS) and pain management.

Bal Pharma plans to expand into smaller and less penetrated markets, which are Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan. The company exports I.V. Fluids, formulations and bulk drugs. The company is competing in the CIS market, which is valued around US$ 2 billion.

CIS is considered an optimistic and swiftly growing export destination with a market value of around $3 billion and growing at 20 per cent annually. But these markets are burdened with erratic receivables management and this is a cause for apprehension.

The key hassles to market in CIS are exorbitant product registration costs and the time-consuming procedures. Therefore, companies perceive the region as challenging and difficult. The reality is that many companies are wary of entering such markets because of high product registration costs.



The question is to allow the product enter markets and face problems of communication in local languages. The strict regulatory compliances take 12 months for product registration.

From an antibiotics and analgesics market, the region is now inclined towards life style disorder drugs. The perils of globalisation have led to an increased consumption of diabetes and cardiac drugs. The hash winters have also seen a growing demand for anti-pyretics, anti allergics and vitamins. Now there is also a huge sale for depression and anxiety drugs prescriptions.

Even though companies are aggressively gearing up to consolidate their presence in CIS, there is always anticipation because past experiences prove that tardy cash outflows makes retrieval of payments a huge time consuming and expensive exercise. However since the situation in the Indian market with the excise duty on MRP is a serious deterrent for survival, companies are making a beeline to international markets and CIS is one of the options where they are working out methodologies to translate difficulties to profit from the region.

To exist in the CIS, companies have to appoint senior marketing personnel who have the knack and acumen to switch difficult situations in a sale into a gainful proposition. The companies should also work out sound strategies to prevent delayed payments. If a company encounters setbacks, then companies should devise a survival action plan. Further constant brand building exercises to grab a fair share of the market should be made. Despite all odds CIS is a lucrative destination for exports for pharma companies from India, opine the experts.