India is an attractive location for the operations of not only the world’s largest drug companies, but mid-sized companies as well. To establish themselves in the country, many foreign firms have made acquisitions or set up small operations. Among the recent acquirers is Perrigo, which bought Vedants Drugs and Fine Chemicals this fall and plans to move its production of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) from Germany and Israel to India. Other firms expanding manufacturing in India include Eisai, Watson Pharma and Teva Pharmaceutical. Watson plans to manufacture a third of its drugs in India. Teva’s future investments in the country are expected to be more than $1 billion. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, India’s API exports are forecasted to reach $2.8 billion by 2010. For many companies, expansion in India will help them introduce products to the Indian market. McKinsey & Co. estimates that by 2015 the Indian pharmaceutical market will total $20 billion.

Source: Business Standard