India's Leading Healthcare & Pharma Companies 2023

India’s Leading Healthcare & Pharma Companies 2023 | 23 [ OVERVIEW OF INDIA PHARMACEUTICALS SECTOR ] ini t iat ives and technological know-how and will further drive sales of new drugs and enhanced pene t r a t i on o f es t ab l i shed products. PHARMA SPENDING: A CUE TO GROWTH PROSPECTS The global healthcare industry is increasingly being shaped by heal thcare spending (out-of- pocket and public) in leading emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, China, India and South Africa. Per capita spending on healthcare is increasing over long- term for these countries. As for heal thcare spends as percentage of GDP, US spends approx . 17% of i t s GDP on healthcare, Japan spends 10.7% whileUKspends10.2%respectively according toWorld Bank statistics. In comparison, India’s spends on healthcare expenditure is only 3.1% of its GDP. Going forward, however, India is likely to witness a steep rise in per capita expenditure on healthcare on account of several factors including demographic and epidemiological trends, policy interventions and adoption of healthcare technology. KEY CHALLENGES Despite being one of the leading pharma producer s , count ry has its own set of challenges. The industry involves multiple stakeholders – frommanufacturers and distributors to retailers and regulators, is miredwith a complex supply chain. The fragmented supply chain leads to inefficiencies in distribution and to implement standardized practices. Besides, mediocre infrastructure for transportation, storage and warehousing has been proving detrimental to pharma players. The overall supply chain, logistics and warehousing costs is 15%higher in India as compared to comparable countries. In addition, lack of proper facilities causes delay and damage to products especially for drugs that require special handling or freezing. Another critical issue affecting growth of the industry is that of counterfeit drugs and medicines. Not only are these spur ious products causing loss of revenue for the industry but also putting patient safety at risks. Recent incidents of irregularities in the industry have raised concerns over lack of stringent drug regulations policies in the country. Dun & Bradstreet