Perlitz underlines that the Indian pharmaceutical sector has "benefited from the particular dynamics of the Asian economies as both purchasers and producers".
He indicates that India's nominal sales of pharmaceutical products "expanded much faster than the global pharmaceutical market as a whole" between 1996 and 2006, citing higher demand due to population increases and an ageing society as well as a sales boom triggered by income growth as the main reasons for this.
Perlitz describes how in the 1980s India exported more pharmaceuticals than it imported, marking its entry into the world market. But he explains how 2005's legal changes made the production of "new" generics more difficult as foreign pharmaceuticals, which used to be copied and sold in India, can no longer be produced in this way due to new patent legislation.
Consequently, India's pharmaceutical industry had to re-orientate its production procedure, states Perlitz. It now focuses on self-developed medicines and/or contract research and production for western drugs companies, reveals the study.
Nevertheless, significant infrastructure problems are preventing the sector from developing, argues Perlitz, highlighting qualitative and quantitative shortcomings in energy and transport.
According to Deutsche Bank estimates, Indian drug sales should rise by 8% between 2006 and 2015. "If the infrastructure problems were remedied quickly, growth would be a little higher," says Perlitz, but at the moment, India's "reorientation is still in its infancy".
"Despite the positive outlook, India will lose market share in the Asian market in the future. The winner will be China, which will remain number one thanks to its expected higher sales growth," Perlitz concludes.
