New Delhi: In an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, analysts associated with a top asset management firm, AllianceBernstein, have underlined that from being the “pharmacy of the world”, India seems to be ceding ground to its Asian peers in biopharma innovation and manufacturing.
In the letter issued Tuesday, the analysts pointed to four areas where India lags behind its Asian peers even though the country’s domestic pharmaceutical market is home to thousands of manufacturers, providing cost effective medicines to millions of patients.
While 10 of the top 20 generic companies in the US are Indian, and Indian companies command over 40 percent of market share in the prescription drugs sector, on the manufacturing front, many Chinese and Korean companies are now investing in bio-manufacturing capacities, leaving India far behind, wrote the analysts.
“China has emerged as a global biotech hub (~25 percent of global pipeline) with strong domestic talent and significant funding flowing in from investors and Big Pharma in the form of M&A (mergers and acquisitions) and licensing,” wrote analysts Nithya Balasubramanian and Parth Shah.
South Korea is also catching up with more biotech startups reaching global markets with their first drugs in the recent past, they pointed out.
When contacted by ThePrint, Balasubramanian, who is director, AllianceBernstein, refused to comment on what had triggered the letter, saying it was against company policy.
“We won’t be able to say anything more than what is already there in the letter,” she said.
‘Innovation — the orphan child’
At 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), India’s public health expenditure is among the lowest and has been on a downward trend since 2014, the letter said.
It added that India finds no mention in the global healthcare innovation index — a comparison of healthcare systems, including in high-income countries — for quality, choice, science and technology, and fiscal sustainability — by the international think-tank Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity.
The analysts also underlined that India does not feature in top 10 patent publications in any health-related field.
About multinational pharmaceutical companies, the letter said that they spend a lot on clinical trials but cannot launch a drug in India at a price they can fix.
“It is quite telling that the largest pharmaco (pharmaceutical company) in India has chosen not to market their marquee innovative asset in India so far,” the analysts wrote.
Where there is demand, quality scientific and manufacturing talent, funding and supply will show up, the analysts asserted in the letter, adding that India needs to create a domestic market where innovative drugs can hope to command the right price and enjoy profits.
Insurance coverage for novel drugs provided for by the government will go a long way and investing in core research talent, attracting quality talent back to India, easing the availability of funding for biotechs, and harmonising regulatory standards for manufacturing and clinical trials will be required for fostering innovation, the letter said.
Performance-linked incentive (PLI) schemes and other manufacturing sops need to be extended to more capital-intensive biomanufacturing to level the playing field at least initially with Asian peers, according to the analysts.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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