Indian Pharma industry to grow at 11 percent, surpass USD 60 billion in 2 years: Care Ratings

The domestic industry was USD 18 billion in FY17, and since then, it has grown at 4.5 per cent per annum and touched USD 21 billion in FY21. Pharma exports were USD 17 billion in FY17 and reached USD 24 billion in FY21, clipping at 10 per cent annually. In FY21, exports grew 18 per cent on the back of pandemic-related drugs. Despite this, the share of exports to overall income has come from 52 per cent in FY17 to 47 per cent in FY21, the report said.

Over the next five years, the patented drugs worth USD 240 billion will go off-patents globally. This provides a large opportunity for domestic generic formulation companies who are already developing the generic versions of these patented drugs to cash in on early and are expected to reap USD 5-6 billion of additional income.

The focus on generics has the domestic country enjoying significant cost advantages in terms of production, R&D and clinical trials over the developed market to the tune of 50, 87 and 90 per cent, respectively.

The country's share in total ANDA approvals has increased from around 40 per cent in 2020 to around 44 per cent as of June 2021. It was 36 per cent in 2017 as it has the largest number of USFDA-compliant pharma plants outside of the US.

The report also expects the R&D expenditure by the domestic pharma companies to remain at about 8 per cent of the total sales for FY23.