India’s Pharmaceutical Industry in the WTO Regime: A SWOT Analysis

A SWOT analysis of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry (IPI) in the WTO regime reveals that the much acclaimed IPI’s expertise in process development skills were made possible by the amendments made to the Indian Patents Act 1970. This strength should be utilized maximum to benefit from opportunities that arise from vertical disintegration of research, clinical trails and manufacturing by the multinationals. The weakness however lies in the fact that such opportunities will be limited to a few firms in this sector. IPI faces threats in the form of competition from other Asian giants particularly China which has similar expertise in process development and reverse engineering. This paper argues that the IPI should adopt various strategies like producing off patented products, new patented products by acquiring compulsory licensing or cross licensing, collaborate with multinationals not only in R&D and manufacturing but also in marketing new patented products and improving the standards of production to widen the export market. GIDR Working Paper 131 , 2002