Indian CDMOs form trade group

At CPHI in Milan in October, eight Indian CDMOs announced that they have formed a trade group to raise the profile of India’s drug services sector and make it a destination of choice. “We are trying to advocate the idea that, like IT services, pharma services could be a big industry in India,” said Aragen CEO Manni Kantipudi (pictured), who leads the group.

One key goal is to streamline the regulatory process the Indian drug authorities impose. At present, it typically takes around six weeks to obtain permission to start a project in India, compared to one week in China.

The partners also hope to improve India’s skills capacity to support the development of innovator drugs as well as generics, where India currently excels. They will work with academic institutes to train chemists for CDMO work, and bridge the numbers gap with China. At present, Kantipudi noted, the eight members employ about 8,000 chemists against around 25,000 at WuXi AppTec alone.