Some Indian drug companies are moving R&D and clinical trials abroad as they seek to expand the types of products they sell and bring drugs to market faster. Piramal Enterprises, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries and Lupin have announced such plans. Indian firms are pursuing sales of higher-margin products, such as drugs for niche markets, products that are hard to make and biosimilars, which make up for the cost of moving operations. Also, clinical-trial–approval times in India are longer than in the US. The Europe and US have been the main destinations but Singapore and South Korea are also being considered. The firms gain access to foreign talent and infrastructure. CRISIL estimates R&D spending as a percentage of revenues by India’s top 20 drug companies to grow from 5.8% to almost 6.5% by 2018.

Source: Reuters