Recombinant drug development, regulation, and commercialization: an Indian industry perspective

The Indian biopharmaceutical sector comprises nearly 40 companies that manufacture and/or market 14 recombinant drugs that account for nearly 50 products. Among these, 22 companies have manufacturing facilities in India.

The aim of the present study was to analyze the patenting trends, commercialization, and regulatory system for biopharmaceuticals in India.

Representatives from 19 such biopharmaceutical companies were interviewed on aspects related to regulatory compliance, manufacturing, commercialization, and innovation in order to understand the challenges faced by them in the current regulatory and patent system.

The study revealed that 94% of the companies have filed patents and 52% are developing new biologic entities in areas such as diabetes mellitus, cancer, and congestive heart diseases. Forty-two percent of the companies consider delays in regulatory approval to be a major constraint for biopharmaceutical industry development. Almost all are of the opinion that uniform guidelines across countries would help to prevent delays in the commercialization of products.

A high proportion of representatives of the biopharmaceutical industry in India identified that elaboration of regulatory guidelines, defined submission requirements, and drug approval timelines are vital to the growth of the biopharmaceutical industry.