Buyouts of Indian Pharmaceutical Companies by Multinational Pharmaceutical Companies: An Issue of Concern

healthcare and Ranbaxy have been bought by Abbott and Daiichi Sankyo, respectively.[3] Cipla, an indigenous company, lone with a market share of about 5.4% tops the list of top 10 companies in India. The increasing presence of foreign companies among the top pharmaceutical companies in India is may be due to a few buyouts which happened in the recent past. Daiichi Sankyo, a leading Japanese pharmaceutical company, which is actually a joint holding company of Sankyo Co. Ltd. and Daiichi Co. Ltd. had acquired a majority stake in Ranbaxy Laboratories, the then number one pharmaceutical company in India. Recently, in 2010, Hospira, a US‐based global specialty pharmaceutical and medication delivery company acquired Orchid Chemicals injectable business for US$ 400 million; Abbott, a US‐based company, acquired Piramal Healthcare’s domestic formulations business for US$ 3.7 billion; and Reckitt Benckiser, a UK‐based company bought Paras Pharma for US$ 720 million. It is said that if the takeovers continue, soon foreign pharmaceutical companies control nearly 50% of Indian drug retail market.[2] The impact of such takeovers would be anything from surge in drug prices to market supremacy by foreign companies. Issue of concern is that the companies which were taken over by foreign companies are major producers of cheaper generic versions of essential medicines and vaccines with extensive market reach in India and other developing countries.[4]