The Indian Pharmaceutical Industry: Pride And Growth Lever Of India

Sudarshan Jain, Secretary General, IPA and Archana Jatkar,Associate Secretary General, IPA reminisce on five significant steps which changed the course of India’s pharma industry and outline five steps that the industry needs to take for sustained growth over the next 25 years

The Indian pharmaceutical industry has achieved tremendous growth over the years and has made a massive impact on the global market. Today, India is the pharmacy of the world and supplies over 60 per cent of global demand for various vaccines and ARV drug supplies, 30 per cent of UNICEF’s annual supply globally and about 60 per cent-80 per cent UN purchases of drugs come from India. India also contributes approximately 57 per cent of APIs and 69 per cent Finished Pharma Products (FPP) to the Pre-Qualified list of WHO. The Indian pharma industry contributes nearly 40 per cent of generic drugs requirement in the US and 25 per cent in the UK.

From being almost non-existent in the 1970s, the Indian pharma industry has come a long way to being one of the largest and most advanced pharma industries in the world. This significant contribution of the Indian pharma industry became possible due to several initiatives both at policy and business level. The five watershed moments in the growth of the industry are as follows:

The Indian Patents Act, 1970

The Patent Act, 1970 was the first Patent Act in independent India. The Act had provision for only process patent and did not allow for patenting of the end product which enabled manufacturers to develop alternative processes for proprietary products that were already in the market. Another important feature of the Act was that it provided for a shorter term for patent protection. Both these features helped Indian pharma industries to flourish.

The Drug Policy, 1978