Indian pharma companies will be able to make a mark in the South East Asia region for manufacture of biologicals and biosimilars over the generics. This is because in the case of generic drugs, the countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines and Korea apart from Japan are looking for differentiated products and therefore Indian pharma will need to enhance its brand building exercise to compete in these markets, said John CP Chang, president, Federation of Asian Pharmaceuticals Associations.

In an interaction with Pharmabiz at the sidelines of the IPC Platinum Jubilee convention 2014, Chang who was here in Bengaluru said that India was a valuable asset to the world pharmaceutical markets. While its range of generic drugs were seen as important source for scores of patients in the markets of US and Europe, its biologics and biosimilars were indispensable imports by the companies in the South East Asian region.

In the area of contract manufacturing, as western world pharma majors were looking beyond India and preferred some countries of the South East Asia like that of Vietnam, Chang stated that this was primarily because of the cost competitiveness in labour for generics and branded formulation production. Therefore in the wake of cost cutting and driving economies-of-scale, global pharma in the US and EU would prefer countries of South East Asia to India for the traditional pharmaceuticals or the generics and the patent expiry drugs, he noted.

India’s strength was in the large scale production of biologicals and biosimilars covering vaccines and immunological drugs. Its pharma companies will need to tap the market opportunities in the South East Asian regions with this capability, said the FAPA president.

The sound know-how in the production of vaccines does not exist in the South East Asian region. In fact much of the vaccines sourced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) are from Indian companies, he noted.

The South East Asian countries look up to India for its pharmacy expertise and there is an increasing demand for India qualified and experienced personnel in all of these markets that cover Vietnam, Laos, Philippines, Korea and Malaysia. There are also several students opting to get their degrees from pharmacy colleges in India, said Chang.