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The Indian pharmaceuticals market is the third largest in terms of volume and thirteenth largest in terms of value, as per a report by Equity Master. India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally with the Indian generics accounting for 20 per cent of global exports in terms of volume. Of late, consolidation has become an important characteristic of the Indian pharmaceutical market as the industry is highly fragmented.
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The country also has a large pool of scientists and engineers who have the potential to steer the industry ahead to an even higher level.
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The Indian pharmaceuticals market increased at a CAGR of 17.46 per cent during 2005-16 with the market increasing from US$ 6 billion in 2005 to US$ 36.7 billion in 2016 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 15.92 per cent to US$ 55 billion by 2020.
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By 2020, India is likely to be among the top three pharmaceutical markets by incremental growth and sixth largest market globally in absolute size.
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India’s cost of production is significantly lower than that of the US and almost half of that of Europe. It gives a competitive edge to India over others.
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The sector is expected to generate 58,000 additional job opportunities by the year 2025.
India’s pharmaceutical exports stood at US$ 16.4 billion in 2016-17 and are expected to grow by 30 per cent over the next three years to reach US$ 20 billion by 2020, according to the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India.
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The drugs and pharmaceuticals sector attracted cumulative FDI inflows worth US$ 14.71 billion between April 2000 and March 2017, according to data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP)
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India enjoys an important position in the global pharmaceuticals sector.
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Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India has predicted that with increased digital adoption, the Indian healthcare market, which is worth around US$ 100 billion, will likely grow at a CAGR of 23 per cent to US$ 280 billion by 2020.
The revenue of India’s corporate healthcare sector is estimated to grow at 15 per cent in FY 2017-18.
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India is experiencing 22-25 per cent growth in medical tourism and the industry is expected to double its size from present (April 2017) US$ 3 billion to US$ 6 billion by 2018. Medical tourist arrivals in India increased more than 50 per cent to 200,000 in 2016 from 130,000 in 2015