Pharma majors plan $2-billion investments to tap new business

Indian pharma companies’ annual spending on research and development (R&D) might cross $2 billion by 2017-18.
 
Companies such as Sun Pharma, Lupin and Dr Reddy’s have increased their spending to develop generic versions of complex drugs that are going off-patent in the world’s largest drug market, the US.
 
India’s drug makers spent $1.4 billion in the previous financial on R&D and are expected to spend about $1.7 billion in the current financial, according to industry estimates.
 
The rising R&D spend is seen as Indian companies’ attempt to protect themselves from the price erosion that plain generic drugs