Indian pharma threatened by trend of shifting R&D operations overseas: survey

Red tape is putting India's multi-billion dollar worth pharmaceutical industry at risk, with most of the pharma companies shifting R&D operations and clinical trials to South-East Asian countries of Cambodia, Korea, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam and others, according to a just concluded survey.

The Indian pharmaceutical sector is expected to grow five-fold to reach $91.45 billion by 2020, according to a separate recent comment by Dr A J V Prasad, Joint Secretary of India’s Department of Pharmaceuticals (DoP).

“Various South-East Asian countries are wooing India’s R&D industry by offering sops and transparent regulations as regulatory bottlenecks and a plethora of committees have slowed permissions/approvals for trials or marketing drugs to more than 12-15 months back home in India while such permissions are given by the US Food and Drug Administration, European Union and Singapore within a month’s time,” according to a survey of the Indian Pharma Industry conducted by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).