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Indian pharma to expand to Africa, South America & South Asia as China+1 strategy gains ground
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Nandita Vijayasimha, Bengaluru
February 10 , 2025
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Indian pharmaceutical companies are expanding their presence in Africa, South America, and South Asia as part of a broader ‘China Plus One’ strategy. This shift comes amid geopolitical uncertainties, supply chain disruptions, and efforts to reduce dependence on China for key raw materials and finished pharmaceutical products.
For a section of the Indian pharma companies, the country is positioning itself as a competitive alternative. We are already supplying nearly 50% of Africa’s generic drugs and vaccines. There is an increasing focus on localized manufacturing in key markets like Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya in Africa and Brazil, Mexico, and Argentina in South America for generic and specialty drugs like oncology. Strengthening exports to South East Asia in active pharmaceutical ingredients will help these countries to reduce dependency on China for raw materials. The strong government support like the PLI scheme gives a push to cost-effective production to strengthen India’s global pharma leadership.
According to Aravind P, chief technical officer, SaSPinjara Life Sciences, expanding into new markets is much desired. There are Emerging Economies which Indian pharma need to specifically target growth from untapped markets like Africa, South America, and Southeast Asia.
Also, it will need to develop affordable therapies to address the growing Indian population's healthcare needs. These strategies hold the priority to drive consistent innovation and long-term growth in the Indian pharmaceutical industry beyond 2024, added Aravind.
With the China +1 strategy gaining ground, he said that there are several advantages of having partnerships with Chinese healthcare organizations which can help the companies to streamline approvals and facilitate local market entry.
Partnering with local Chinese healthcare organizations can provide valuable insights into the regulatory landscape, helping to navigate the approval process more efficiently. Local partners can assist in understanding and meeting the specific requirements of Chinese regulatory bodies, expediting the approval process, said Sachin Marihal, co-founder and chairman, SaSPinjara Life Sciences.
In fact, collaborating with established local entities can provide easier access to the Chinese market, leveraging their existing networks and relationships. By leveraging these advantages, pharma companies can effectively enter and operate within the Chinese market and benefit from a broader diversification strategy, added Marihal.
The China+1 strategy involves diversifying operations beyond China to other countries. This encourages Chinese pharmaceutical companies to diversify their operations. In fact there is an added advantage if already collaborated for local market entry from various countries to manufacture products in different locations, such as India. Such collaborations can lead to accessing new markets through local partners for both Chinese and international companies. It diversifies supply chains to reduce dependency on a single country, noted Marihal.
There is a cost efficiency too. Manufacturing in countries with lower production costs, like India, can lead to significant savings. Partnering with local companies can ease the process of meeting regulatory requirements in different markets, where organizations from India region can stay ahead since our pharma companies are producing and filing products to regulated market, stated Aravind.
Further, collaborations can lead to sharing of technology advancements and best practices. It improves overall product quality like complex generics and biosimilars which offer higher margins and less competition. Such collaborations are a win-win, creating a more resilient and efficient global supply chain. Therefore we see exciting times for the pharmaceutical industry as it navigates these new opportunities, said Aravind.
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