India - The Next R&D Cluster For Biopharmaceuticals?

The cost of discovering new drugs has increased significantly, and pharmaceutical Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have market pressures to decrease prices of drugs. Moreover, the patents of numerous blockbusters will expire within the next few years and the MNCs are still not able to replace them with new profitable blockbusters. Moreover, companies from developing countries are trying their best to move up the value chain. A country like India has some essential advantages in terms of cost reduction and access to highly skilled labour at lower cost. Therefore it is assumed that the developing countries might have the potential to become R&D clusters. This work will try to identify some essential factors that may indicate whether India has the potential to become an R&D cluster for biopharmaceuticals.

Abtin Maghrour, MSc: Studies Science & Technology Policy & Management at the University of Edinburgh, MA: Studied Strategy and Marketing at the University of Applied Sciences Darmstadt. Consultant at Capco, Frankfurt.