Indian pharma sales to reach $9.5B in 2010

The Indian pharmaceutical market is set to continue to expand, with sales rising to $9.5 billion by 2010, according to a report on the sector by the Irish consultancy Research & Markets.

The research points out that the pharmaceutical market has grown steadily over the past seven years helped by a change in wealth, higher living standards and changes in demographics leading to rising demand for medicines.

Benefits for western drugmakers are limited by "largely untested patent regulations," but R&M suggests that Indian companies can offer strategies to defend patents, and this has started to persuade multinationals to link up with Indian partners. The Indian need to expand beyond small-molecule generic drugs into the production of biosimilars has meanwhile pushed Indian pharmaceutical enterprises to form alliances to launch R&D.