Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chairman & managing director of Biocon Limited, is batting to provide an enabling environment to the Indian pharmaceutical players so as to benefit from the growing generic drugs market.
Speaking at the CII CEO Series, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) Northern region headquarters at Chandigarh, Shaw said both the developed countries emerging markets were now moving towards generic drugs.
India’s emergence as the biggest and a low-cost generic producer, said Shaw, provide huge opportunities for the country to gain from the growing generic drugs market.
She said the cost of capital needs to be subsidised, since pharmaceutical was a capital intensive business.
Generic drugs is expected to account for 40 per cent (in value terms) of the global pharmaceutical market by the year 2015.
The pharmaceutical market spending on medicines is expected to reach $1.1 trillion by 2015, with the contribution of emerging markets at $400 billion to the total figure. Generics and Biosimilars will be the major components of emerging markets, she said.
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Speaking on the recent partnership with US player Bristol-Myers Squibb(BMS) for its oral insulin project, Shaw said she hopes the product would become a reality in the next 3-4 years.
Biocon partnership with BMS would help the two companies bring out IN-105, the first oral insulin product.
Under the agreement, BMS can exercise the option for development and commercialisation of the product outside India, while Biocon would retain rights for the domestic market here.
The oral insulin product, according to Shaw, would be a recognition for India.
Biocon is also developing a new drug for treatment of psoriasis and it is is expected to enter the market soon.
Commenting on the country’s healthcare challenges, she said the burden of healthcare has been passed on to the patient.
“Its (Inndia’s) public spending on health at 1 per cent of its GDP is amongst the lowest in the world. Out-of-pocket expenditure amounts to 80 per cent of the total healthcare spend and 80 per cent of healthcare infrastructure is in the private sector.”
Availability and accessibility of affordable quality healthcare is a critical issue. Shaw was of the view that drug price control in isolation will not deliver affordable healthcare, and focus needs to be on affordable healthcare system through the public-private partnership route, added Shaw.