A bronze for India in the Global APIs Market Competition

The CPhI & P-MEC India, organized by UBM, is expected to attract over 50,000 attendees, as the CPHI Global Pharma Index shows that the country’s efforts to improve its reputation are paying off. India emerged successful in a several key areas and was ranked third in the world by international pharmaceutical companies.

Amsterdam, Netherlands The Index ranks the major pharma economies out of ten based on the insights of 500 international pharmaceutical companies from over 40 countries.

These findings were made public as the 11th annual CPHI & P-MEC India 2017 gets underway later this month in Mumbai (November 27 to 30, 2017). The second India Pharma Week (November 25-30, 2017) will feature seven events covering the entire pharma supply chain in India, leveraging Mumbai’s status as a major pharma hub. The trade fair is now held over two exhibition centers Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC) and the MMRDA Grounds (BKC), and has grown from a three- to a four-day event.

India was ranked second in the world for predicted ‘pharma market growth potential,’ with respondents citing high growth domestic markets and expanding manufacturing exports as key drivers. India received a score of 7.0, trailing only China (7.2). However, pharmaceutical companies rated India as having nearly twice the potential of Western European countries, outpacing even the United States (6.3), Korea (6), and Germany (5.9), which finished third, fourth, and fifth, respectively.

Indeed, India was chosen as the third most competitive pharma business destination, with a score of 6.3, trailing only the United States (6.9) and Germany (6.6), but ahead of Japan and main rival China.

India’s recent efforts to improve pharmaceutical manufacturing quality appear to be having an impact as well. The industry believes India’s ‘API manufacturing’ is broadly comparable to Italy, Spain, and Korea, though it remains behind tier one nations such as Germany and the United States.

A more detailed analysis of only domestic respondents revealed that the vast majority, 80 percent, were either ‘confident’ or ‘extremely confident’ about the Indian market in 2018. Notably, the CPHI report discovered that 88 percent of respondents in India ‘were looking to work with foreign partners in 2018’, with foreign companies accounting for an average of 50 percent of sales. Exhibitor numbers have increased by more than 200 companies in the last year, highlighting this increased internationalization, with the 2017 event featuring 1,400 exhibitors from over 100 countries.