Global pharmaceutical firms plan investments in India

The reverse flow of global pharmaceuticals in to India has started. What they were waiting for was the enactment of legislation as stipulated by the WTO, sanctifying product patents by January 2005, replacing the existing process patent regime. Under process patents, Indian drug firms could manufacture patented drugs using a different process, which is prohibited under the product patent regime.

"We are working on at lest five to seven proposals from various MNC pharma firm which are looking for an entry into India," says G Ravishankar, of Meghraj Financial Services.
With the promulgation of the ordinance on product patents in December 2004, which will provide legal protection to global pharmaceuticals with patented drugs, they are more confident of protecting their intellectual copyrights.

In the last six months a number of foreign drug companies had finalised their plans to enter India, though they had obtained clearances from the Foreign Investments Promotion Board much earlier.

Japan's EiFai Pharma is the latest enterent to the Indian pharma market. The company is in the process of setting up a manufacturing facility here. The Canada-based Apotex Corporation is also setting up an R&D centre in Bangalore while Germany's Haxal AG is setting up a formulaiton plant in the same city at an investment of around $10 milion. Another German pharmaceutical, Ritopharma, is setting up a formulaiton plant in Goa while Israel's Teva is developing a R&D centre at Noida near Delhi.

Hungaray's Gedeon Richter Ltd has formed a joint venture with the Delhi-based Themis Pharmaceuticals, to manufacture active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates at an investment of around $20million. The French company Galderma, which recently received approvals for a 100 per cent subsidiary, is another company which plans to make India a manufacturing base for products sold in South-east Asian countries.

Similarly, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Dutch major Ferring BV, is setting up a manufacturing unit in Mumbai for producing specialty proteins and hormones. Though the unit will function as a captive plant initially, the company will consider the possibility of making this facility a manufacturing base for South-east Asian countries.