The four southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, and Kerala in India are achieving very different success levels in pharma manufacturing, despite their proximity: Karnataka is a major biologics player and the tiny state of Goa has an outsized manufacturing industry, while Kerala and Tamil Nadu lag behind.
Karnataka has one of the fastest-growing pharmaceutical sectors in India: approximately 40% of the state’s pharma production is exported overseas. The state is an emerging pharma powerhouse, particularly its city of Bangalore, and its success is largely driven by its biologics production. A former Portuguese colony, Goa is geographically tiny but its pharma industry is overrepresented and has ties to European companies. Kerala is a much larger state but has a very underrepresented pharma industry, partly due to a left-wing government not being able to attract businesses. Tamil Nadu has a solid pharma industry but is not as attractive to international pharma companies and innovative companies as its neighbour Karnataka.
Together, the pharma manufacturing industries in the southern Indian states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Kerala have large merger and acquisition (M&A) potential, given that the majority of pharma facilities belong to companies with a single site in the region.
Karnataka capital Bangalore home to biologics innovation
Well-known pharma companies operate in the state of Karnataka. There are several R&D centres, pharma industrial zones, and exclusive pharma Special Economic Zones (SEZ) to support the developing pharma industry and incentivise international investment. An SEZ is an area with tax and trade laws to encourage the establishment of certain industries. In March 2020, the country announced a mega pharma park will be built in Raichur in Karnataka, along with five others around India.
A large proportion of biotech and international pharma companies in India are located in or around the high-tech city of Bangalore in Karnataka, which is regarded as the “Silicon Valley of India.” Bangalore plans to build a 9M square foot life sciences research park.
The majority of sites in the four southern states offer small molecule manufacture; however, API biologics (protein and peptide) manufacture for the US and EU is also offered at five facilities at Karnataka (clustered around Bangalore) and one facility in Goa (Figure 2). Biocon Ltd (Karnataka, India), Cipla Ltd (Maharashtra, India), Syngene International Ltd (Karnataka, India), Stelis Biopharma Pvt Ltd (Karnataka, India), and Kemwell Biopharma Pvt Ltd (Karnataka, India) have facilities involved in biologic API (protein and peptide) manufacture. All these companies are Indian-owned, apart from Kemwell Biopharma after its acquisition by Recipharm AB (Stockholm, Sweden) in 2016.
The emerging pharma powerhouse of Karnataka has international pharma companies such as Mylan NV (Hertfordshire, UK) and Adcock Ingram Holdings Ltd (Gauteng, South Africa) operating excess capacity contract sites.
Comparing states’ pharma manufacturing activity in India
Karnataka houses the largest number of FDA- and/or European Medicines Agency (EMA)-approved manufacturing facilities, and Tamil Nadu is home to the next largest number of facilities. Goa and Kerala have far fewer facilities: Sangrose Laboratories Pvt Ltd (Kerala, India) owns the only FDA approved facility in Kerala.
Source : https://www.pharmaceutical-technology.com/comment/southern-india-pharma-manufacturing/
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