Every day seems to bring more news of the booming pharma market, and contract R&D and manufacturing, in China and India. Active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing is growing in China, but, at this point, global pharma seems to view China less as an offshoring center than as a huge and growing market (counterfeits aside). This point was made clear in a recent study by The Boston Consulting Group, which predicts that China's pharmaceutical market will double in four years to $25 billion, making it the world's fifth largest. Read more.
India has already become an offshoring center for global drug development and for API manufacturing, with the largest number of FDA approved API and dosage manufacturing facilities in the world, outside of the U.S.
However, India's own established drug development and manufacturing base is also moving outward and globalizing. (An interesting article in the Economic Times of India describes the trend.)
India's Ranbaxy, in particular, is making a number of strategic acquisitions around the world. The company has just made a bid for Betapharm, Germany's fourth largest generic drug manufacturer, India's Financial Express reports (Read the news article here).
Read April's edition of Pharmaceutical Manufacturing for an interview with Ranbaxy's VP of global quality, Ranjit Barshikar, for his views on growth and its impact on pharmaceutical QA and QC in the new global pharma marketplace.
-AMS
