US President-elect Barack Obama's healthcare reforms may turnout to be a booster for Indian companies operating in generics space. The agressive healthcare agenda under Obama is a postitive sign for Indian pharma industry, said Glenn Saldanha, MD & CEO of Glenmark Pharmaceutical Ltd.
“Obama's intention to cut healthcare cost will have a postive impact on Indian generic drug companies. Reduction in healthcare cost will provide Indian pharma companies a greater access of US generics market,” he said speaking at Confluence-2008 organised by Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A).
Barack Obama's healthcare reforms include higher usage of generic drugs in public programmes and reduce drug cost by allowing import of safe drugs from other countries. "Obama’s healthcare cost reduction efforts will benefit Indian generics companies," he expressed hope. It may be mentioned here that with a view to focussing more on generics business, Glenmark pharmaceutical spun off its generic drug division into a seperate entity called Glenmark Generics Ltd. Glenn
Saldanha is also the chairman of this subsidiary company of Glenmark. Talking about the impact of global meltdown on Indian pharma industry, he said that pharma industry has not been impacted significantly by the current global turmoil. Despite bearish sentiment all over the world, the Indian pharma industry has grown by 6 per cent.