Pharmaceutical Industry: An Overview

The pharmaceutical industry is involved in developing, producing and marketing various drugs licensed for use as medication. Today, the pharmaceutical industry is growing rapidly as the demand of drugs has been rising consistently. Generally, there are three types of pharmaceutical companies: • Mainline These are the large, established firms that have their own patents on drugs, are approved by the FDA and are for sale. These companies are widely heard of and have offices spread across a the country. Most of them also have plants and laboratories spread throughout the world, which lets them conduct extensive research while manufacturing and distributing the already existing drugs. • Research and development These are usually small companies that are engaged in research and development of drugs striving to get approved in the market. Their aim is to try and join the league of the mainline pharmaceutical companies. • Generic These companies manufacture and distribute already-established drugs, no longer protected by patents, and sell them at a cheaper price than branded drugs. Pharmaceutical industry or pharmaceutical companies play a vital role in the healthy functioning of the society. e play skilled and efficient workforce for the research and development of a variety of new drugs. Medicines today have become an integral part of our lives. Today, they are taken in the form of tablets, syrups, capsules, injections and many other technologically advanced ways. It is believed that the pharmaceutical industry in India is one of the largest in the world. Around 20% to 24% of the global generic drugs are produced by India. Even in the area of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), the Indian pharmaceutical industry ranks among the first few. Research suggests that at the present growth rate, the Indian pharma industry is expected to boom by the year 2015, and may also be among the top ten pharma based markets. Thus, it doesn’t come as surprise that pharmaceutical companies play a major part in bossting India’s GDP immensely. All said, it is sad to see very few pharmaceutical companies who work by the rules. In order to rise to the top quickly, several companies compromise on quality. In this way, they end up producing drugs that possess excessive side effects. Several companies even claim that their product will completely cure the person of the problem, but which actually doesn’t do them any good.