NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Thursday, December 1, 2016

India’s pharmaceuticals sector which is “slightly outperforming” that of China can benefit from the vast Chinese market for generic drugs and the acquisition of Gland Pharma by a Chinese company could prompt Beijing to open its pharma industry to Indian firms, the official media said.

“China and India are the world’s two largest manufacturers of bulk drugs, a key raw material for producing pharmaceutical drugs,” an article in the state-run Global Times said. Now with changes in the supply pattern of bulk drugs around the world, companies in the US and Europe have started competing with the Chinese and Indian markets.

“The situation raises the need for China and India to think about how they should maintain their own advantage and break development bottlenecks in the bulk drug industry,” it said. “In terms of market size, the combined population of China and India surpasses 2.5 billion – huge markets that no country can afford to ignore,” it said.

With USD 53 billion trade deficit out of over USD 71 billion annual trade, India has been pressing China to open up more for Pharma and IT industries as India has edge over China in the two sectors. But contrary to promises, China which also supplies bulk raw materials to Indian Pharma industry is yet to open up substantially despite criticism from Chinese public that generic drugs are extremely expensive in China compared to India.