India to emerge among top players in pharma industry by 2020

India is likely to emerge among the leading player in the pharmaceutical industry by 2020,  with one of the top five major global markets, says a study by Rajkot-based Ikon Marketing Consultants (IMC).

IMC founder Azaz Motiwala, and principal consultant described the current decade as a healthy one for pharma industry. He added the major driving factors in the decade were huge domestic demand and increased spending on drugs.

Motiwala said that the global pharma market was expected to grow at 7 per cent to 8 per cent over the next five and is projected to reach $1.7 trillion in 2020. He added India would rank among top ten global players by 2015 itself.

He said the Indian consumer currently spent nearly 1 per cent of his total income on drugs and pharmaceuticals, which would not alter significantly in the current decade.
 
He said government was pursuing its long term vision of making quality health care affordable and at least 50 per cent of country's population would be covered by health insurance by 2020, against the current coverage of only 15 per cent.  According to research, the coverage should increase to 80 per cent over the next ten years, he added.

By 2020, nearly 650 million people would be covered under health insurance, while private insurance coverage would grow by nearly 15 per cent annually till 2020, he said.

By 2020 India's health care industry would grow to $275.6 billion. Currently India spent 8 per cent of its GDP on health care, but would need to spend at least $80 billion more in the next five years to meet the targets, according to the research.