RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:RE:Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) boosts biological drugs The history of the global dependence on Chinese pharmaceuticals is closely linked to the reorganization of the Indian pharmaceutical industry in the 1990s. India’s participation in the WTO forced the pharmaceutical industry to adopt product patent regulation in line with global standards. Lost to China amongst the reshuffling of the Indian pharmaceutical industry as it partnered and competed with multinational corporations [MNCs] in the domestic and global market was an Indian self-reliance on APIs. Even as China has long struggled with pharmaceutical innovation, it has long been in a unique place to capitalize on an international need for pharmaceutical precursors.
Bulk drug parks, capable of leveraging scale to offer infrastructure, process waste, and subsequently offer cheaper municipal resources and lower production cost, were essential to China’s growth in the pharmaceutical industry. These bulk drug parks with the ability to cheaply produce key precursors resulted in India’s reliance on China. Now that India has copied China's bulk drug park model it also made India an attractive prospect to companies because India can offer a more vertically integrated pharmaceutical manufacturing environment, simplifying supply chains and making China’s value proposition far less unique.
Three of the largest global pharma players, including Pfizer, Bayer, Merck, AstraZeneca, and GSK have since entered into joint ventures with some of the largest Indian pharmaceutical companies. These ventures target domestic market growth, India’s unique blend of advanced pharmaceutical infrastructure, and its status as an emerging market. Consequenlty these 4 global market players have been the biggest opponents to the IRA.
However, as of January 2024, Pfizer has chosen to reduce its product portfolio size in small molecules to 35% from 94%, as it moves to dedicate the bulk of its product portfolio to biologics.
https://www.biospace.com/article/ira-drives-pfizer-s-decision-to-focus-on-biologics-not-small-molecules/