Pharmaceutical machinery manufacturing industry has been growing very rapidly, as there is a huge demand in various drugs in the market. Change has been very evident as growth of pharmaceutical is indicated to 18 per cent to previous years. Mohana Krishna Goud discusses about the pharmaceutical machinery market and its future.

 

Along with the development of pharmaceutical companies, pharmaceutical machinery manufacturers also advances themselves to meet the challenges of pharmaceutical industries. Most of the leaders in the field are looking towards advanced market like the US and Europe for their pharma products. As these countries mandate proper validation of the products, the significance of machineries which incorporate advanced technologies have increased. For validation of the products, the machines should also be fully equipped. Machine manufacturers today are upgrading themselves with investments in knowledge and research. Many in the industry often visit to the various countries, known for their pharmaceutical machinery and technology, just to learn and observe about the new developments in the machines and to keep a track of the latest development. Additionally, there are other visible trends that are observed in the Indian pharma machinery industry like machine makers adopting CNC machine to get quality output, increased use of gadgets like VFD and PLC, ISO-approved machinery preferred, rise in import of prototypes, getting CF approvals for machines, collaboration and technology transfer, expanding to meet rising global demand and investments in HRD by taking professionals abroad to meet the challenges of international market. 

 

The Indian pharma machinery manufacturers association (IPMMA) also arranges various technical seminars to make people aware about new developments. Evidently, the Indian pharma machines which have already made a dent in the domestic soil have also started making considerable forays into the Indian international market as well. The growing acceptance of the Indian machines is in the foreign countries is illustrative of this trend.

 

Pharmaceutical engineering and machinery sector 

During the 60s and 70s the pharmaceutical sector mostly imported machines from Europe for their processing and packaging needs. But the mid 70's saw the country going through a severe shortage of foreign exchange and therefore the Indian government introduced very high import duties and restrictive import licensing policies. This forced all the pharmaceutical companies to encourage some Indian engineering enterprises to manufacture machines locally. This was perhaps the only route for the pharmaceutical industry to enhance production and cater to the growing demands of the domestic market. This was a great opportunity for the Indian small scale engineering companies to provide machineries to the pharmaceutical industry and thus, a scenario was created whereby machinery manufacturers grew rapidly to provide the needs of pharmaceutical companies over a period of time. Today Indian pharmaceutical manufacturing cost much lower and this was made possible due to the huge savings on capital investment of plant and machinery besides low-cost technical manpower costs. Looking at the capabilities of Indian engineering companies many international machine manufactures have joined hands with some Indian companies which has helped the Indian pharmaceutical industry to procure further improved Indian made machinery at a price almost one third or one fourth of the imported technology. The Indian pharma machinery industry growing 15-20 per cent annually and there are more than 700 units today, that are supplying machines to the pharmaceutical industry in India and worldwide. There is bright future for Indian pharma machinery industry. The machines produced by our foreign counterparts are however, five times more expensive than Indian machines, for the same products and in the same capacity. As Indian pharmaceutical machineries are inexpensive, people still look to the Indian market for those products 

 

Pharmaceutical machineries: Global market 

The pharmaceutical machineries made by India are installed and under operations at all the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA)-approved manufacturing facilities in USA, Australia, Africa, etc. meeting the parameters of complete satisfactions. The high credentials goes to strict quality standards adopted by the pharmaceutical machinery manufacturers in India, which had lead some of the Indian companies have entered in to the technical tie-ups/ joint ventures with USA, Europe and South East Asian companies to manufacture their products in India and being marketed in all Asian and CIS counties. Emerging markets such as China, Russia, Turkey and Korea had double digit growth, contributing significantly to this large growth rate. In the next five years, world pharmaceutical market alone is poised grow at a rate of eight percent with business opportunity of over a US trillion dollors. Countries like USA, Japan and those of Europe led by Germany shall remain dominant market controlling over 80 percent trade opportunities. Asian countries like South Korea, Taiwan and India are expected to have growth rates ranging from 12 to 15 per cent annually. The new product patent regime and increased proportion of Indian pharmaceutical exports to advanced markets is gearing Indian pharma machinery manufacturers to better good manufacturing practices(GMP) and higher technological adaptation. Indian machinery companies have started to follow proper documentation and maintenance of records for every manufacturing and maintenance procedure, which is demanded by international buyers. Indian machinery manufacturers are perfectly evolving with changing times. Today, Indian machines are far better in quality and in par with international standards, than it used to be 15 years ago. Indian manufacturers follow the ISO 14000 and 9001 series of quality certification. Due to industry trends such as off-shoring and outsourcing, there are an increasing number of pharmaceutical manufacturers in Asia, and instrument providers are keen to take advantage of this booming market. North America remains the largest pharmaceutical market constituting 49 per cent of the worldwide market followed by Europe and Asia-Pacific. Pharmaceutical market across the world is witnessing increased opportunities in the area of bio pharmaceuticals, pharmacogenomics and biologics market. The smaller national markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America are expected to grow significantly and will increase their presence in the global pharmaceutical landscape. The top big players now are concentrating on the regulated US and European markets, giving their local giants a run for their money. It is common knowledge that USA and Europe take up the lion's share of around 80 per cent of the global pharma market. The model keeps on upgrading the total culture of the industry and encouraging the medium companies to enter the export market. The entry of the top companies in the regulated markets and their success in the generic market has become benchmark for all the small & mid-size companies. The phenomenal growth of these companies & growing profit margins means a bonanza for their stockholders, fueling fresh investment in the Industry. In terms of pharmaceutical packaging, there is robust growth ahead for this sector. The global pharmaceutical and healthcare packaging market will grow with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.2 per cent in 2009. With approximately 34 per cent of the share, North America is still the largest market, followed by Western Europe with 29 per cent and Asia with 24 per cent. Eastern Europe's share is relatively low at 4.5 per cent but expected to increase above average to 5.3 per cent in 2009. The pharmaceutical packaging technology market is estimated to grow by 4.3 per cent until 2009. The US pharmaceutical industry has achieved worldwide prominence through research and development (R&D) work on new drugs, and spends a relatively high proportion of its funds on R&D compared with other industries. 

 

Indian pharmaceutical industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of Indian economy and stands fourth in volume and 13th in value terms. With an annual turnover of Rs 1,500 Crore and growing at over 10 per cent per annum Indian pharmaceutical machinery manufacturing sector constitutes around five per cent of the global market in value terms. With joint ventures between foreign and Indian pharma companies India can make world-class products at affordable prices. There are significant opportunities for pharmaceutical plant design consultancy and related services for large companies adopting USFDA, UKMCC standards. 

 

Pharmaceutical Machinery: Technology 

The up-gradation of technology in machinery has been faster in India. Indian machinery has developed from a very humble technology offerings an initial stage, to today being considered as one that can offer value added complex engineering with integration of new technologies. Various international companies found it cost effective to work with India n partners in the form collaborative ventures. The number of joint ventures between foreign and Indian machinery manufacturers is a testimony to the fact that the Indian machinery industry understands the stringent need of pharmaceutical industry and that it can produce international quality at affordable prices. It is significant to note that India and China are making machinery which are 10-20 times less expensive than that of those made in the US and Europe. But German made machines are unbeatable and it will take some more time for Indian manufacturers to develop machines that match German quality.

 

In future, it will not be surprising to find managers of pharmaceutical companies waging an all-out war in the market to gain a competitive leverage, with little or no time to efficiently plan and design their manufacturing processes, which would possibly slash their production costs and increase their bottom line. This is a scenario, wherein the Indian machinery will come handy. Like information technology, the Indian machinery industry is all set to make in-roads in the various markets of the world to lead a manufacturing revolution. 

 

About the author:

Mohana Krishna Goud is a Business Development Manager, Hilti Group, has a BE Degree in Mechanical Engineering from Jawaharlal Technological University. He has worked on various projects serving pharmaceutical giants of the market in India and Germany.