According to a study, India will emerge as a leading global player in pharmaceutical industry by 2020, securing a place among the top five major global markets.
City-based Ikon Marketing Consultant (IMC), one of the leading marketing consulting firms in the country, has come out with a study on the pharma sector in India.
Describing the ongoing decade as a healthy one for pharma industry, Azaz Motiwala, IMC founder and principal consultant said the major driving factors in this decade are huge domestic demand and increased spending on drugs.
"The global pharma market is expected to grow at seven per cent to eight per cent over the next five years, reaching an anticipated US $1.7 trillion in 2020," Motiwala said, adding that India is going to rank among top ten global players by 2015 itself.
According to him, Indian consumer currently spends nearly one per cent of his total income on drugs and pharmaceuticals, which will not alter significantly in the current decade.
"However, with the rise in the per capita income, the spending is going to be triple (approximately US $33) by 2020," Motiwala said.
"Government's long term vision of making quality health care affordable, at least 50 per cent of country's population should be covered by health insurance by 2020, against the current coverage of only 15 per cent and the research indicates that the coverage should increase to 80 per cent within next ten years," he added.
By 2020, nearly 650 million people will have health insurance cover, while private insurance coverage will grow by nearly 15 per cent annually till 2020, he said.