Aug
14
India’s Biopharma Surges on Outsourcing Boom
Filed Under Healthcare, India Business | Leave a Comment
A combination of a weakened currency and an urgent need to cut costs at big pharma companies is driving a surge of drug development and manufacturing business for India.
The Wall Street Journal says bad times in Big Pharma are spurring a boom for operators in India as well as China. And about the only near-term switch that could blunt the wave would be a decision to engineer a more valuable rupee.
But one analyst cautions that many Indian developers are finding that the transition from manufacturing generic drugs to devising new therapies can be hard.
“Two years ago, we thought Reddy would do it,” said Sandeep Shenoy, a strategist at PINC Capital. “Three years back, we thought Cipla might do it. Every one of them has had problems.”
Here’s the WSJ article .
Nov
16
China overtakes India in Clinical Trials
Filed Under Research & Development, Healthcare, India vs China, Intellectual Property | Leave a Comment
China has overtaken India in an important measure of drug research activity - Clinical Trials.
In an analysis done by the Financial Times, China now has 274 registered clinical trials underway, compared to 260 in India. Until recently, India had been in the lead.
China’s lead is likely to grow, as Novartis makes good on its plan to shift trials away from India in light of its recent setback in a key patent ruling. Last year, China grabbed $2.2 billion of the global action on drug R&D. By 2010, the country expects that to grow to $10 billion, or 2 percent of world’s total R&D budget. AstraZeneca, Novartis, Eli Lilly and GlaxoSmithKline among the leading pharma companies with big plans there.
Roadblocks continue to pose a problem in China, of course, as regulators continue to be slow in releasing tissue samples for analysis at foreign laboratories, IP questions remain and the regulatory environment remains mired in controversy over corruption scandals.
But on the other hand, low costs and a ready access to patient populations as well as a plentiful supply of researchers makes China the up-and-coming country in clinical research.
For more info, here’s the Financial Times report and here’s the latest article from Time
Nov
8
India vs China- Comparison on E-Commerce potential
Filed Under Energy, Healthcare, Indian Companies, Training & Education, India vs China, Internet in India, Mobile Telecom, Intellectual Property, New Media, E-Business, India Investment Opportunities | Leave a Comment
The two giant Asian economies are competing on every front to be the biggest one in the world. One significant aspect of this race lies in E-Commerce. Both these economies are expected to have more Internet users than the U.S. by 2010.
While India got its first taste of Internet in 1986, establishing ERNET, China got Internet connectivity as late as 1993. But within one year it had 3.5 times as many Internet users as India. Despite the huge difference in numbers, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) puts India in the group of “E-business followers” and China in the group of “E-business laggards”. The most apparent reasons for this difference are the government policies. China has only one guarded access to the World Wide Web. Internet users cannot access a range of foreign web sites. Domestic web sites are checked at the source through a registration process and content monitoring. This has hampered adoption of the Internet for a variety of commercial uses.
In India, on the other hand, while the government has been criticized for its late awakening to cyber laws, the initial un-monitored period proved a boon for E-Commerce. Though post 2000, India has taken measures to keep a check on the happenings on the Internet. A report by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) discusses Indian government’s efforts to compel users to disclose keys or decrypted files to government agencies. Also, India’s IT Bill has a special section on offences dealing with the publication or transmission of “obscene material”.
Table 1: Relative advantages and disadvantages of China and India in Internet Development
|
|
Relative advantage |
Relative disadvantage |
|
China |
Higher per capita GDP |
No e-commerce and digital signature |
|
Higher investment in telecom sector resulting in higher tele-density |
||
|
Higher international bandwidth |
Control on Internet content |
|
|
Self-dependent in most IT products |
||
|
Cheaper Internet access rates |
||
|
India |
Well-developed private sector with both |
Less Political leadership to create an E-Business hub in India. |
|
Democratic tradition and transparent legal system |
Stifling bureaucracy and red tape (though much reduced than 10 years back) |
|
|
Large middle class aware of global brands |
||
|
Large English speaking work force |
Higher illiteracy rate |
|
|
Extensive networks of contacts created by expatriates |
||
|
World leader in software development and IT services |
Numerous different languages to be addressed to reach the full range of population |
Factors such as larger population, higher per capita GDP, indigenously produced IT products, well-developed data network, and higher international bandwidth make Chinese market more attractive for several e-commerce applications. The penetration rates of mobile and broadband technologies in China. In particular, China has a bigger market for applications such as stock trading and financial transactions. China’s recent entry in the WTO has further increased its telecom and Internet development potential. However, unlike India, China does not yet have formal laws to govern e-commerce transactions and companies have to rely on conventional laws in case of disputes.
On the other hand, availability of 50 million intelligent English speaking workforce at cheap rates, a large proportion of that being computer literate, make India an attractive place for outsourcing. Companies located in developed countries can significantly reduce their operating costs by employing Indian tele-workers in less critical steps of the value chain such as back-office services as well as in higher value-added services such as design and engineering and education. The upcoming bandwidth boom in India will further increase the tele-working potential by enhancing the quality of telecom services.
Since a large proportion of Chinese view information written in Chinese language, the best way to target Chinese Internet users is to provide content in Chinese language. Whereas about 50 million of Indians are fluent in English, remaining 950 million speak more than 500 different local dialects and the success of a company is a function of its ability to identify the linguistic segments that can be served profitably. But for any company looking to enter, it does put India at a severe disadvantage.
Unlike in western countries, most of the transactions in China and India are conducted on cash basis and thus e-commerce companies are required to provide alternatives such as cash on delivery, wire transfers and checks to facilitate e-commerce. This is quite different from the west, where plastic money has been in use for long, and online transactions have more or less been accepted as safe.
