Pharmaceutical Market Structure in India & Competition Concerns

Abstract

Health Status of any country depends upon its preventive, curative, and promotive measures. But to implement these measures with available skilled human resources, and infrastructure, the growth of the pharmaceutical market is an essential one. Health Status is a function of health professionals, health infrastructure, invention, and innovations in the health sector, and the nature of government programs and policies. The Government of India exposed ‘Pharma Vision 2020’ aimed at making India a global leader in end-to-end drug production. Permission time for new facilities has been reduced to boost investments. Further, the government introduced devices such as the Drug Price Control Order and the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority to deal with the issue of affordability and availability of medicines (www.idma.com). India’s cost of making is significantly lower than that of the US and almost half of that of Europe. It gives a competing edge to India over others. (Sectoral Report / Sep 2016). The competition in these markets is very crucial for making quality drugs at affordable prices to consumers. Competition law plays an essential role in dealing with anti-competitive issues in the sector and maintains competitive markets. Hence the researcher attempted to view the status of existing Indian pharmaceutical market structure, government regulations, an,d common anti-competitive concerns in the sector. Too much regulation reduces competition in the market. An equal act of management and maintaining competition is required to benefit human society in reducing theirs out of pocket expenditure for pharmaceutical products.