Given the magnitude of the COVID pandemic and its spread, almost every industry is evolving towards a new normal. Pharmaceutical, as a growing industry, is embracing the change and continues to take proactive measures to successfully navigate through these uncertain times. However, the growth of the pharma industry is likely to spike amidst and in the post-pandemic world. The pandemic crisis has, in fact, opened up new opportunities for the Indian pharma industry, bringing a new impetus to leapfrog into the future.
The Indian pharmaceutical industry is a leading producer of quality generic drugs and continues to contribute over 20% of the global market. India accounts for more than 10% of the world’s pharma production in terms of volume and 1.5% of value. With the availability of a skilled workforce and high-quality, cost-effective production of vaccine drugs, India caters to about 50% of global vaccine demands. As a third-largest pharma market in the world, India has the potential to become the leading pharma manufacturer with its high-volume, cost-effective factor.
The status quo of the current pandemic has pushed the pharma industry to leverage its existing advantages for future growth. The sector has the opportunity to enhance its drug supply chains and become truly self-sufficient.
Boosting pharma exports
It is high time the pharma industry ramps up its exports. According to IBEF, pharmaceutical exports of India have steadily grown from $10 billion in 2012 to $19 billion in 2019. Meanwhile, the global pandemic has increased the demand for Indian drugs in the global market because of its relatively cheaper pricing and its affordability among both developing and developed nations. As a result, the need for export of drugs like paracetamols, ritonavir, and hydroxychloroquine has massively increased during the pandemic times. This is expected to continue into the post-pandemic, propelling the high volume production and exports of these drugs to nations worldwide.
Increased supply of drugs
Owing to the COVID breakout, many private pharma manufacturers in India have increased their supply of required Covid-19 related drugs. There is, therefore, a huge potential for India’s pharma sector to increase its trade partners both domestically and globally. Moreover, the government has also encouraged pharma companies by investing in more R&D for drug research by providing incentives to enhance the drug production for export channels as well as the domestic market.
Localizedraw material supply networks
The existing advantage of the Indian pharma industry is its large-scale pharmaceutical production. However, the sector today is faced with the non-availability of raw material because of its high dependability on API imports, which is disrupted amid the pandemic. India’s road to self-sufficiency will be propelled through localization and mobilization of raw materials within the country. It is important to find solutions to source APIs and raw materials from local vendor partners and ramp up API production within the country. This will create an impetus for the promotion of domestic manufacturing and usher new possibilities to locally manufacture all the critical key raw materials, APIs, drug intermediates, and medical devices.
All in all, the Indian pharma industry’s advantage of the large talent pool and advanced technologies would benefit the country in bolstering the domestic production lines to meet the high regulatory standards of global markets.
With the future of the Indian pharma industry witnessing a steep growth, despite the pandemic, there are immense opportunities for pharma professionals to excel in the field. We, at Indore Institute of Pharmacy, one among the medical college in Indore, understand the same and are hence putting special emphasis on producing skilled pharma professionals, capable of competing on a global scale. We, at Indore medical college, provide cutting-edge pharma education to the ambitious minds to help them grow with strong learning and research capabilities. We aim to provide our students with adequate academic knowledge, practical learning, and exposure to R&D. And to that end, our collaboration programs with faculty members and industry experts have been opening new opportunities for the students to develop practical knowledge and gain exposure to modern industry practices.
We, at the Indore Institute of Pharmacy, are here to build a highly talented pool of professionals having immense practical finesse and know-how of the evolving trends in the pharma industry. Join us at B pharmacy colleges and get prepared to be a part of the highly skilled workforce of the future pharma industry.