India is an exciting opportunity for us, says Amneal Pharma

Amneal Pharmaceuticals is a company that specializes in developing and manufacturing high-quality generic and specialty pharmaceuticals. Recently, the President and Co-CEO, Chirag Patel, spoke to CNBC-TV18 about the challenges and opportunities facing the pharmaceutical industry.

Patel also spoke about the opportunities in the Indian market, which he sees as a big market that will grow substantially in all aspects.

“India is a big market, we believe that India will be growing substantially beyond imagination in all aspects as India’s economy is doing so well and will continue to do so well and we are very happy about it,” he said.

He noted that awareness for patients is increasing in India, and that there is a growing need for innovation in areas like rare diseases, which impact 9 percent of the population.

“The insurance coverage awareness for patients providers is increasing and that will drive tremendous growth in India in upcoming years,” he said.

“India is an exciting opportunity for us,” he added.

Amneal Pharmaceuticals, founded by two Indian origin brothers Chirag Patel and Chintu Patel in 2002, with over $2 billion in sales, is the third largest affordable medicine player in the US market currently. The company, which gets majority of its business from the US currently, says that price pressure is in low double digits and is not sustainable.

Patel noted that this level of price pressure - 10-12 percent price pressure in the US alone - is not sustainable in the long term, and that companies need to keep investing in manufacturing and quality infrastructure to remain competitive.

However, Patel also highlighted that these savings are not going to the patient, and that the industry needs to find new ways to create value for patients.

One way that Amneal is doing this is by focusing on specialty products and injectable drugs, which are seeing a faster pace of growth.