Health Biotech Director sees Huge Potential for CRAMS in India

Contract Research and Manufacturing Services (CRAMS) is a growing segment in the Indian pharmaceutical industry. It involves outsourcing research and manufacturing services to third-party service providers. The CRAMS model has gained popularity in recent years due to the increased focus on cost optimization, outsourcing of non-core activities, and regulatory compliance. Paramjit Arora’s Health Biotech is a fully integrated CRAMS player that has collaborations with some of the leading pharmaceutical companies all across the World.

The Indian pharmaceutical industry has traditionally been known for its generic drug manufacturing capabilities. However, with the growth of the CRAMS segment, Indian pharmaceutical companies have been able to expand their service offerings to include drug discovery, development, and clinical trials. This has helped to improve the competitiveness of the Indian pharmaceutical industry globally. The CRAMS segment is expected to continue growing in India due to the country’s large pool of skilled scientific talent, cost advantages, and supportive government policies. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of outsourcing and supply chain diversification, which could further boost demand for CRAMS services.

Some of the major players in the Indian CRAMS industry include Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Parmjit Arora’s Health Biotech, Piramal Pharma Solutions, and Wockhardt. “Health Biotech takes pride in providing end-to-end, comprehensive, high-value, niche CRAMS offering right from process research & development to commercial manufacturing,” says Paramjit Arora Health Biotech Director.

While the industry isn’t at par with the IT industry in terms of the absolute size of the opportunity, as few of the biggest IT companies are already $15-20 billion in terms of revenues and are still growing, but in terms of the nature of the opportunity, the CRAMs industry is precisely at the same inflection point as the IT was in the mid-90s and the late-90s.

Government policies in India have gone through drastic changes over the period of time. The patent regime in India introduced in 2005 by the Indian Biotechnology policy simplified procedures for regulatory clearance and exempted import duties and service taxes on the raw material being imported, which encouraged multinational pharmaceutical companies like Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories and Parmjit Arora’s Health Biotech to outsource in India. This support led to the growth of CRAMS in India.

Indian contract research service providers have gained a significant hold in the early and late clinical stages of contract research services. However, areas such as pre-clinical and early discovery studies remain unexplored. These segments have untapped potential; services like medicinal chemistry, bioinformatics and regulatory filings are offered, which can form the ground for new drug discovery. This segment under CRAMs is dynamic and evolving into a well-established offering.

China, Russia, Brazil and Taiwan are the major competitors for India. Compared to the magnitude of outsourcing that needs to be done, China by itself cannot meet all the requirements of the World. With increasingly increasing global companies wanting to shift their manufacturing base outside China, it favours India.

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