India To Flag Market Access Of Drugs And Spices With U.S.

By siliconindia | Monday, 10 February 2014, 12:55 Hrs

"There is politics and business interests of multi-national companies, which find it difficult to take on competition from Indian companies," he said.

India supplies low-cost drugs to over 200 countries.

"The pharma industry has played a significant role in providing affordable drugs not only to the country but to the rest of the world, especially African nations, where the healthcare spends of governments are very less," G V Prasad, Dr Reddy's Laboratories (DRL) chairman, said ahead of next week's BioAsia 2014.

And in the US, demand for generics is rising as the Obama administration is trying to reduce healthcare costs.

Also, according to IMS Health, India's $14 billion-a-year drugs market is expected to be worth $22-32 billion by 2017.

Western multinationals such as Pfizer Inc, Novartis AG, Roche Holding AG and Sanofi SA are eyeing a larger share of the growing drugs market in India.

Issues of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are bedevilling the drugs trade. A recent report by the US Chamber of Commerce ranked India at the bottom of 25 countries in protection of IPR, which has been questioned in India.

"I would very honestly describe it as scare-mongering tactics and, frankly, I don't think it's helpful," Ambassador to the US S. Jaishankar said this week.

Source: PTI