2020: Indian pharma 'sunrise' segment, prognosis positive for healthcare sector

Nourished by increasing spending, improving accessibility and growing exports, India's pharma and healthcare sector is poised for another year of robust growth even as pricing and cost headwinds could force players to pause to catch breath.

The next wave of growth could come from increasing exports to large and traditionally under penetrated markets such as Japan, China, Africa, Indonesia, and Latin America, which would help the industry meet its aspiration of becoming the world's largest supplier by volume, according to pharma industry body Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA).

Experts said improved access to medicines in India and exploring new markets while maintaining thrust in the US will help the country's pharma industry to record double-digit growth in the coming year.

However, the sector, specially pharmaceuticals, will be up against headwinds of increased costs related to regulatory compliances, particularly for the US market, price controls across markets and mandatory genericisation in India.

"The Indian Pharmaceutical industry is a sunrise industry with a competitive advantage for India. We should leverage India's position by unleashing entrepreneurial spirit through policy stability and ecosystem," IPA Secretary General Sudarshan Jain said.

The bullish outlook for the sector is also reflected in the forecast by rating agency Icra, which has projected the Indian pharmaceutical industry to grow around 10-12 per cent between FY2019 and FY2022 while maintaining a stable outlook on the sector.

It cited abating headwinds from pricing pressure in the US (which is the largest regulated market), stable growth for the Indian market driven by increasing healthcare spending and better accessibility as likely key growth drivers for the Indian pharma companies, coupled with comfortable balance sheet structure.

As for the healthcare sector, Apollo Hospitals Group MD Suneeta Reddy said, "The prognosis is positive."