Pharmaceutical Industry

The government imposed a ceiling of 30% trade margins on selected anticancer medicines to make these more affordable. While putting a cap on what manufacturers charge, which has been under price control under the Drug (Price Control) Order, 2013 and also earlier, the government has kept traders’ margins untouched. Prices of the same products sold by different manufacturers vary widely and the overall consumer gain has not been significant. The government has not adequately used the policy options available or tried to control the prices of patented medicines. Compulsory licensing has also practically remained unexplored. The high prices of biologic products are highlighted and the importance of simplification of the regulatory barriers to make the market more competitive and price-sensitive is emphasised.

Pharmocracy: Value, Politics and Knowledge in Global Biomedicine by Kaushik Sunder Rajan, Hyderabad: Orient Blackswan, 2017; pp 328 , ₹1,095.

This paper presents an analysis of the political economy forces underlying the new conceptualisation of drug quality in the Indian pharmaceutical industry, consequent upon the process of globalisation and liberalisation and a stricter IPR regime. It examines how these forces have shaped the increasingly complex construction of drug quality, both globally and in India. It also comes up with a comprehensive multidimensional definition of drug quality incorporating a range of parameters.

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A SWOT analysis of the Indian pharmaceutical industry (IPI) in the WTO regime reveals that the much acclaimed IPI's expertise in process development skills were made possible by amendments made to the Indian Patents Act 1970. This strength should be utilised to the hilt to benefit from opportunities that arise from vertical disintegration of research, clinical trials and manufacturing by the multinationals. IPI faces threats in the form of competition from other Asian giants, particularly China. This paper argues that the IPI should adopt various strategies like producing off-patented products, new patented products by acquiring compulsory licensing or cross licensing, collaborate with multinationals not only in R and D and manufacturing, but also in marketing new patented products and improving the standards of production to widen the export market.