The export growth of Indian pharmaceutical industry is heavily depending on its ability to leverage on its strengths in the fields of generic bulk, generic formulation, contract manufacturing of bulk and formulation, contract R&D, clinical trials and herbal medicines, feels D B Gupta, chairman, Lupin Ltd.

Speaking at an interactive session on "The capability of Indian pharmaceutical industry to service the world market", organized on the third day of India Chem 2002, here, Gupta said that almost all of India''s current foreign exchange earnings through pharma business are due to these sectors. While the current earnings touched $ 95 billion, the actual export of products was worth $25 billion, he said. This, according to him, was a pointer towards the country''s potential in meeting the outsourcing demands of developed countries.

He wanted Indian industry to identify its strengths and carry out a focused approach towards catering to the demands of foreign companies. He highlighted India''s vast patient pool, its genetic diversity, less cost factor and availability of skilled manpower as the contributing factors to the country''s strength.

D S Brar, Chairman, Ranbaxy, put a supportive view and said that India has developed the capabilities to meet any requirements of global pharma industry. He highlighted the fact that Indian exports saw a surge in the last two decades after the introduction of process patent and Indian competence in reverse engineering. He felt that India did emerge from obscurity to become the third largest API manufacturer in the world within such a short period. The contract manufacturing possibilities are on the rise and the country is gearing up to meet any future demands, he said.

R D Joshi, secretary general, OPPI also highlighted India''s strengths in R&D, its matured nature clinical trial research possibilities and its technical competency in IT enabled services. Custom synthesis of kilo quantities of APIs for clinical trial programmes, clinical trials for a large number of new drugs, software solutions for mining & analysis of clinical data, toxicology and pharmacology studies were all pointed out as areas where India has developed core competency. Other speakers like Srinivas Lanka, Aurobindo Pharma and M Srinivas Reddy, Hetero Drugs Ltd also echoed the same views.
Reddy tried to explain why India is able to supply the world quality drugs at the cheapest price. In his opinion, domestic competition has given enough strength to Indian drug industry to identify cheaper and better methods of manufacturing processes and there by reduce the prices. Economy of scale was also another reason pointed out by him.