Indian pharmaceutical research (INDRANIL MUKHERJEE/AFP/Getty Images)The $37 billion (Rs 2.15 lakh crore) Indian pharmaceutical sector is more robust than many of its global peers, American rating agency Moody's said on Friday (25 November).
"The Indian pharmaceutical companies, despite their smaller size, exhibit strong business profiles when compared to some of their global peers, underpinned by their good product and geographic diversity," Moody's Investor Service said in a statement from Singapore.
"When compared with their global counterparts, the Indian pharmaceutical companies have stronger financial profiles with low leverage and high coverage metrics," Moody's Vice President Kaustubh Chaubal said in the statement.
Moody’s associate analyst Diana Beketova said:
Increasing competition, challenges in preserving their historical superior profitability and consolidation among large global generic companies will drive M&A (merger and acquisitions) activity for the Indian pharmaceutical sector.
The Moody's report, titled ‘Indian Pharmaceutical Companies - A Deep Dive’, has been co-authored by Chaubal and Beketova.
According to it, the Indian generics market is the second-largest in the world, behind only the United States in terms of volume, although it forms only 1 per cent of the global pharmaceutical market by value. Though the Indian companies' R&D investments are low in absolute terms, they are large relative to their size - at 5 per cent to 8 per cent, Moody's said.
"These investments are likely to ramp up as companies start targeting complex generics, biosimilars and niche specialty drugs," it added.
The rating agency noted that over the last several years, the Indian pharmaceutical companies have grown their global presence and now operate in diverse regulated and unregulated markets.
With inputs from IANS
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