In the present day, the population and disease are increasing in tandem and the demand for medicine is also increasing for their wellness. The demand for medicine will never saturate in-fact the demand will always increase. People get sick mainly because of their lifestyle, environmental causes and genetic disorder. With the increasing distortion in lifestyle, beyond repair exploitation of environment and ever increasing mutation of viruses like Ebola, Sars and Swine flu, the increase in demand for medicine is projected to go up multiple times. The average increase in medicine sales is directly proportional to the increase in population. The Compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is expected to be between 14-17 %.
1970 Patent Act was crucial in the development of pharmaceutical industry in India as it enabled the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) to thrive in this high R&D cost market.
Drugs are manufactured in three main forms:
a) Tablets
b) Injections
c) Formulations
Challenges: to set up a medicine manufacturing plant, the manufacturer has to face the following challenges:
1) To set up factory based on norms of Central Drug Research Institute( CDRI)
2) To obtain drug manufacturing license which is given after thorough inspection by experts. Compliance with the Schedule M of Goods Manufacturing Practise has posed new challenges.
3) Excise duty structure has become an important game changer off late. Due to the 16% excise duty on MRP( Maximum Retail Price), most of the manufacturers have moved to duty free zone.
4) Location should be at such a place where all infrastructural facilities are available and raw materials are available in abundance.
5) Marketing is also a challenge as most of the governments restrict excessive advertisement of medicines. This only leaves the option of promotion through sales channel which has higher operational cost.
6) Obtaining finance is also a challenge as financiers also put condition for compliance based on government norms.
7) We must be ethically and morally strong in order to sustain in pharma business , which is such a noble cause.
7) We must be ethically and morally strong in order to sustain in pharma business , which is such a noble cause.