Merck expects strong growth from India, says executive board member

Merck is increasing its investment in India and introducing products and solutions to support biosimilar manufacturing in the country, Udit Batra, executive board member of the 350-year-old German pharmaceutical and chemical maker said on Thursday.

“We expect strong growth from India. We are ready to bring bioproduction technology in India in a meaningful way. We have already done that successfully in other countries,” said Delhi-born Batra who heads the company's life science division.

While Merck plans to introduce new anti-cancer drugs in India, the main growth driver for its business in India will come from sale of products and services for biosimilar manufacturing, Batra said. Domestic drugmakers are increasing their focus on biosimilars to tap $90 billion market opportunity in Europe and the US over the next five years. Biosimilars are copies of biologic drugs which are made from living cells.

Merck is also enhancing its investment in India and has announced 16 million euros (around Rs 1.2 billion) infusion to develop a chemical manufacturing plant and a distribution centre near Mumbai. The new facilities spread over 12,000 sq metres will come up in 2019 and are the latest of its investments in the country, which includes collaboration laboratory and a shared service centre in Bengaluru.

    

Merck, which clocked global sales of 15 billion euros in 2016, has built pharmaceutical and chemical businesses through a string of acquisitions in the last decade. In India, Merck is present in for over five decades. It sells pharma and consumer health products through a listed entity while its other businesses are held in privately held subsidiaries. In 2017, the listed entity Merck Ltd generated total revenue of Rs 11.43 billion and a net profit of Rs 0.93 billion.

The life science division which manufactures laboratory materials, chemicals and is the largest of its segment in India. Globally the segment contributes over 35 per cent of Merck's global sales. Batra did not share India specific segment sales figure.