Largely known for generic drugs, the Indian pharmaceutical industry has started moving up the value chain as it invests more money in research to develop new drugs and reformulate the existing ones.
The report titled ‘India Innovation: Trends’ was compiled using Thomson Innovation, Derwent World Patents Index (DWPI), Derwent Patent Citations Index (PCI) and Thomson Data Analyzer.
Here are some key highlights from the report:
Indian headquartered pharmaceutical companies top the list of key assignees with India priority patents in the pharmaceutical sector. Nearly 135 unique molecules from more than 45 Indian pharmaceutical companies are undergoing various phases of clinical trials for key therapy areas such as cancer, diabetes, allergic rhinitis, osteoarthritis, among others. Around 30 percent of those molecules are in phase-3 or late stage clinical trials.
The innovation in the pharmaceutical category is focused mainly on drug combinations (26 percent), anti-inflammatory drugs (23 percent), natural products made of plant extracts (19 percent), anti-bacterial drugs (17 percent) and anti-cancer drugs (15 percent). Focus on natural products for pharmaceutical use is in line with the historical roots and popularity of Ayurveda in India.
The top patent filers in pharmaceuticals include Cadila Healthcare, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Dr.Reddy's, Wockhardt, Amity University, Cipla, Sun Pharma, Aurobindo and Lupin.
Top companies on an average have shown an increase in their aggregated R&D expenditure from 6 percent of sales in 2011 to more than 9 percent in 2016.
Indian companies have signed 55 deals with various research institutes and other pharmaceutical companies including multinationals. Out of 55 deals, 14 deals are in context of drug development services, 11 deals are M&A deals, 9 deals are in context of drug-manufacturing supply, and 8 deals were for drug development and commercialisation.
In terms of indications, 12 of these 50 active deals are focusing on chronic diseases such as epilepsy, diabetes, dermatology and inflammation, six deals are focusing on developing drugs for antibacterial and antiviral treatments across multiple infections and five deals are focusing on oncology.
Most of the deals in drug development are early stage partnerships.
(Reference: http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/health-trends/india-pharma-companies-lead-in-patent-filing-report-2272395.html)