In September this year, Ranbaxy Laboratories launched rosuvastatin in India. In less than two months, there are five brands of the drug available in the market, all launched by Indian drug companies. In the next month, five more brands are expected to join the bandwagon.

In September last year, Glenmark launched valdecoxid. Now, there are at least 40 brands of the drug available in pharmacies across the country.

As the window of opportunity to come out with reverse-engineered drugs patented by overseas pharmaceutical majors closes on January 1, 2005, when the new product patent regime comes into force, Indian drug companies have gone into a product launch overdrive.
 
As a result, there are at least 50 brands of most drugs available in the Indian market. In some cases, there are as many as 80 brands. By the end of 2003, well over 1,000 brands will have been launched within a year.

This follows the nearly 1,000 brands that were launched in 2002. Industry estimates suggest there has been a 30-40 per cent rise in drug launches in the last three years.

After a public debate, which stretched through the 1950s and the 1960s, the Indira Gandhi-led government changed the Patents Act in 1972, recognising only process patents.

The upshot was an Indian company could make any drug available in the world so long as it did not infringe on any patented process.

Indian drug companies have, using this furiously, done well not only in India but in several overseas unregulated markets.

But this will change once India reverts to product patents in 2005. Indian companies will not be able to produce drugs patented after 1995.

This explains the rush to the market. Over the years, Indian scientists have developed considerable expertise in process technologies. The companies are leveraging this to the full.

"It shows the maturing of Indian technological skills," says a Dr Reddy's Laboratories executive.

In the process, India has today become the most competitive market in the world. "India is the most complex market in our global operations because of the market dynamics, the competitive environment and the regulatory framework," says Malvinder Singh, Ranbaxy's regional director (India).

Till a few years ago, prices of a new drug would hold for at least a year before competition forced it down.

Now, industry sources say, a company is lucky to hold on to its price for a couple of months. Indian pharmaceutical companies are therefore finding it increasingly difficult to create large brands.

"The lead time to create a brand is not there at all," says an executive with a Mumbai-based drug firm.

Too many pills

• Number of drugs launched in 2003: 40-50
• Number of brand launches in 2003: over 1,000
• Number of pharma companies: over 2,000
• Number of brands for every old drug: at least 40