Indian Pharmaceutical industry has registered its presence on the world’s map of the pharmaceutical industry. The Industry is third largest in the world by volume and seventh largest in terms of value. Almost 60% of the world’s total vaccine production is done in India. It has been estimated that Indian generic manufacturers supply 1 in every 3 pills that are consumed by the patients in the United States of America.
Here are the top trends in the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry that will drive growth in 2020:
Amalgamations Of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence will help the pharmaceutical industry to design new and automated algorithms. It will help in achieving faster, precise, accurate, and repeatable results. Molecular analysis and drug discovery are other areas that would involve the use of artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence will help to tackle difficult diseases, comprehend complex clinical data, monitor drug adherence, and improve inclusion and exclusion criteria in clinical trials.
New Use Of Marketed Products
Technological advancement will allow consolidation and comprehension of data generated through real-life evidence. This will help in the identification of new therapeutic areas of treatment with already marketed drugs. The only requirement in such a scenario is to generate additional data through controlled clinical trials.
Incorporation Of Digital Therapeutics
Pharmaceutical companies are tweaking their business strategies and transforming themselves from a mere pill manufacturer and marketer to a service provider in therapeutics. Digital therapeutics involves the use of high-quality evidence to provide optimal therapeutic interventions through software programs. The trend in the pharmaceutical industry has been initiated by Cipla which has acquired a stake in Wellthy Therapeutics.
Next Generation Molecules
From a mere generic drug supplier, many pharmaceutical companies would assign additional resources for research to create next-generation molecules. The year 2020 will witness more research on stem cell therapy, gene therapy, and biosimilars.
Supergenerics
The pharmaceutical industry in India will leverage on the expiry of various blockbuster drugs. The trend in the pharmaceutical industry has been started with the expiry of Vildagliptin patent in December 2019 and the subsequent launch of generic vildagliptin by more than 40 companies.
Counting On Neglected Disease
Research on drugs for treating neglected diseases and rare diseases will see a rise in 2020. This trend in the pharmaceutical industry may be fuelled by various non-profit organizations as well as by multinational companies.
Foreign Direct Investment
To capture more market share and to improve economies of scale, many of the foreign pharmaceutical companies have established their manufacturing plants under India’s foreign direct investment policy.
Export Growth
Almost half of the pharmaceutical product in India is exported to more than 200 countries. With more regulatory approvals abroad and new market penetration, the pharmaceutical export from India is expected to rise to US $20 billion in 2020 as compared to the US $17.2 billion in 2017-2018.
Penetrating To Unpenetrated Market
Apart from increasing the business in established countries, 2020 will witness the companies moving into largely unpenetrated economies. The preferred destination in this context would be China and Japan. Indian Drug companies have only one percent share in the Japanese Pharmaceutical Industry. Inter-governmental relations, trade policies, and novel business models will help in driving this penetration.
Leveraging OTC Arena
Over-the-counter drugs will see a boost in terms of volume, value and reach. With more penetration in the rural market, OTC consumerization will help in easing the problems caused due to shortage of doctors. The chemists would be more empowered to provide OTC drugs for common ailments.
