Abstract
Against the background of important changes under way in the pharmaceutical industries of advanced countries brought about, in part, by advances in biotechnology, this chapter seeks to examine how well-prepared the Indian pharmaceutical industry is to integrate biotechnology techniques to create new drugs. Tracing the evolution of the industry, the chapter proposes a classification of firms according to their technology strategies, revealing the riskaverse attitude of Indian firms. Then it illustrates that while key steps taken by the government of India to promote biotechnology research in public institutes and university departments are laudable, failure on the part of the government to forge effective networks between industry and research institutions for the commercialization of research is a major weakness. Thus integration of biotechnology remains mainly at the level of distribution of imported diagnostic kits and therapeutics with little impact on the industrial structure of the Indian pharmaceutical sector.
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Notes
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Ramani, S.V., Venkataramani, M.S. (1999). Biotechnology and the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry Integration and Impact. In: Dzever, S., Jaussaud, J. (eds) China and India. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-333-99508-2_11
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