| MUMBAI: India's growing prominence in the global generics industry is all too well-known. And now comes news that it also holds the lion's share of the world's contract research business. |
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| Going by a report of Italy-based Chemical Pharmaceutical Generic Association, contract research in India was valued at $100-120 million in 2005 and growing at 20-25% annually. Its nearest rival, Italy, trailed with $60-70 million, while Spain took the third place with $25-33 million, the report, titled 'Competition in the world APIs market', stated. |
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| The fact that over 15 prominent contract research organisations (CROs) have a direct presence in the country, attracted by its ability to offer efficient R&D on a low-cost basis, sure helps. Among these are firms like Clininvent Research, Manipal Acunova, Accutest Research Labs, Clinigene, GVK Biosciences, iGate Clinical Research, Kendle, SIRo Clinpharm, Synchron Research Services and Quintiles. |
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| About 65% of the business is from clinical trials, the single largest expense for drug companies during drug development, while new drug discovery accounts for the rest. |
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| The cost saving for a multinational company moving R&D to India is 30-50%, due to factors like lower wages and cost of infrastructure including equipment and IT support, as well as a plentiful supply of treatment-naive patients that can dramatically speed up clinical trial patient recruitment times, the report says. |
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| Umakanta Sahoo, general manager, Chiltern International Pvt Ltd agrees. "The major time-consuming part in the trials is recruitment of patients. There is a large pool of patients here and that's why the MNCs prefer India for conducting trials. Outsourcing saves them a lot of time," he says. |
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| Fuelling the business further is the presence of large multinational pharma companies, which have decided to make India their hub for cheaper production of active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished formulations, says the report. |
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