India has every chance to drive the pharmaceutical industry due to various reasons. The huge treasure of biodiversity available in the country is one of the main advantages that the country enjoys. Among other advantages India also has a wide availability of tissues and cells in vitro fertilization clinics. The availability of scientific intelligence, talented people in information technology, and low cost capital required to manage bio-manufacturing also helps the biotech industry's growth in India.
The biotech market in India is also helpful toward the growth of the industry in the country. There is a huge demand for drugs and medicines for the ageing population in the country, which is one of the strongest factors for the steady biotech market. The biotech companies in India are now slowly entering the world market and are expected to have descent growth in the future.
Indian biotech company Dr. Reddy's Laboratories Ltd has placed itself comfortably in 50th position in the list of Top 50 pharmaceutical companies of the world generated by MedAd News in September, 2005.
Bengal Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals is the first Indian biotech company that came into existence in 1930 in Kolkata. Following the heavy import of medicinal products the government started to take some measures to encourage the growth of pharmaceutical companies in India. It is the fruit of Patent Act 1970 that the government took in order to give India the now-developed biotech company. The act removed composition patent from the drugs and medicines thus streaming out the multinational companies while giving space to the Indian companies to grab the market. After successful investments in the country market, the Indian biotech companies started to reach for the global market by manufacturing medicines at low price.
20,000 registered drug manufacturers from India sold a total of $9 billion worth of drugs and formulations in the year 2002 while 60% of the drugs were exported and 85% of formulations were sold in India. USA and Russia were two major countries where Indian pharmaceutical companies exported.
The major pharmaceutical companies in India include:
- Dr. Reddy's Laboratory
- Cipla
- Ranbaxy Laboratories
- Nicolas Piramal India
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Sun Pharmaceutical Industries
- Wockhardt
- Biochem Pharmaceutical
- Aventis
- Allergan
- Cadila Healthcare
- Aurobindo Pharma
