The Hindu Business Line : Drug MNCs' interest `could peter out'

IT has been `Destination India' for leading multinational drug companies, who have in the last six-odd months done more than just watch local developments with interest.

Top brass from companies such as Novartis, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson (J&J) and Sandoz have been visiting India to get a feel of the changing business climate in the country.

But this recent interest evinced by global drug companies in expanding their existing base or increasing collaborative efforts could suffer a setback, caution industry representatives.

"The signals being sent out by the Government in the last two months on issues such as drug pricing and intellectual property rights (IPR) are worrying. Time is running out on the 2005 deadline, to bring in product patents. The Government needs to put in place a road-map, if the interest shown by global drug companies needs to translate into anything meaningful in the local market," a pharma company official said. Trying to give a picture of the business opportunity that is virtually knocking at the door, an industry representative familiar with the developments told Business Line: Swiss-drug major Novartis's Chief Executive Officer was in India in March setting the tone for more collaborations with Indian companies. April saw the top brass of J&J meeting local drug companies, besides scanning the pharma horizon for formulation development, clinical research and manufacturing. Between January and March, no less than six teams from Eli Lilly visited India, looking at bio-informatics, bulk-drug sourcing and chemical research.

Global pharma companies expect investments in India to increase by three to five times, post 2005, "provided the Patent Law is in place".

The second phase of the Budget session of Parliament resumes this week, and pharma industry representatives hope the session will throw some light on the fate of the Patents Third Amendment Bill and drug pricing issues.